McLaren's Lewis Hamilton had to fight back tears as he discussed his impending departure from McLaren.
Hamilton's last race with the team which has supported him since he was 13 is Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix. He joins Mercedes for 2013.
Asked by BBC Sport how he will feel after the race, the 27-year-old said: "I might have to keep my helmet on.
"It's going to be tough. It's my family and I'll be going elsewhere. It's best I don't talk about it too much." Hamilton's eyes then welled up. BBC pit-lane reporter Lee McKenzie said: "You get choked up thinking about it?"
Hamilton replied: "Mmm."
He said of his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger: "My missus is always telling me every bit of time is precious and I'm going to maximise the time I have this weekend."
The 2008 world champion said making the decision to join Mercedes, which he did while on holiday in Thailand after the Singapore Grand Prix at the end of September, had been a weight off his shoulders.
"It started getting more and more intense with the questions every weekend - when are you going to do this, where are you going to go?" he said.
"Every weekend and then the last month or so was horrible.
"I had that pressure on and in my personal life when I'm stressed I don't know how to get it out of me, and I was very stressed and then I had to do my job. "I had to still perform, and also my auntie passed [away] which was really the toughest couple of weeks, three weeks we had as a family because we hadn't had anything like that happen to us before. It was just a really horrible period of time.
"And when I finally sat down, I was sitting down in Thailand. And I'd gone there to go for the week with Nicole, but it didn't work out that way, and I went there for a literally a day and I was just sitting by the pool thinking about life and I was just able to release, and it was: 'This is what I want to do.'
"It became clear that I wanted to try something new and I was going to go for it. And then I called Martin [Whitmarsh, McLaren team boss].
"It was the most difficult call I've ever had to make because we'd grown so close and he had been so supportive and I didn't want to let people down.
"But at the end of the day you have to let people down sometimes to make decisions."
He said he would still be leaving even if he had won more than one world title with McLaren.
"I think so - six years is a long time, 15 years is a long time. This is not… I don't see it as… when someone leaves a job, I don't see it like that.
"I really feel as if I'm leaving my home and going elsewhere. I've learnt my skills and I've got all the right skills to go out and try something different."
Hamilton admitted he had found the pressures of life in F1 difficult to deal with at times during his career. "In F1 things do change a lot," he said. "Before I was just there to race but then in F1 everything changes. Media, pressure from sponsors, money, fame - all these things come into it.
"They're thrown into one pot and you don't know what's going on and it's definitely taken a while to grow up and grow into it, which I still feel I'm doing.
"But I feel I've been at my best I've been so far both on the driving side but also in my personal life."
He added: "It wasn't my target to have a glamorous girlfriend but it just so happened that I had the biggest crush on this girl and I happened to meet her. And it was like - you're not going anywhere!"
He said he had no regrets about his decision to join Mercedes, who have failed to score a single point since Hamilton's decision was announced.
"I have to trust my decision. It is what it is," he said. "I made it; I stick to it.
"I don't for one second think: 'Oh, I wish I didn't.' I feel: 'Right, when my job is done here, how am I going to turn that car around?'
"I've studied everything about it. I know how it looks. I know it doesn't look right. There are going to be things they do better than McLaren and there are things we do that will be better than them and I'll hopefully be able to string both of those together."
BBC Sport - Brazilian GP: Tearful Lewis Hamilton discusses McLaren exit
So the hankering for a Welsh victory against New Zealand goes on. Fifty-nine years, 25 matches, and on the evidence of Saturday's 33-10 defeat, little prospect of it ending anytime soon.
If Wales wanted to measure themselves against the best, they came up woefully short, the optimism of their pre-match rhetoric looking more like the rantings of the deluded.
There is no shame in losing to this All Blacks side, without doubt one of - if not the - greatest of all time. But if you raise expectations, as Wales did with their run to last year's World Cup semi-finals, the Grand Slam that followed, and their pre-match claims that they could topple the world champions, the sense of deflation is that much keener.
And yet, strange to relate, the last half-hour of this rousing affair not only revived Welsh spirits, but underlined the reasons for believing that things might just be different.
Suddenly the fire and flair of the Six Nations campaign resurfaced, New Zealand appeared mortal after all, and two very different tries allowed Wales to believe once again.
Just as well. Unless they re-produce the same level of performance for the entire 80 minutes against Australia next week, they face the prospect of opening the defence of their title against Ireland in early February on the back of seven straight defeats.
As an illustration of the 'boom and bust' nature of Welsh rugby, that could hardly be more graphic. True, Wales endured a hefty dose of misfortune on Saturday. Losing your tight-head prop, even one as inexperienced as Aaron Jarvis, plus your main ball-carrying lock [Bradley Davies] and centre [Jamie Roberts] so early in the game, would disrupt any team, let alone one striving to restore confidence after two demoralising defeats.
The injuries, Wales coach Warren Gatland acknowledged, were "pretty unsettling". That All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore is likely to be cited for his swinging arm off the ball that ended the involvement of Davies is of little consolation after the event.
But if those wounds were not of their own making, the self-inflicted ones were just as damaging and pivotal to the outcome.
Decision-making, game intelligence, rugby nous, call it what you will. If physically Wales eventually showed they could match the All Blacks, once they had got to grips with the speed and intensity of the game, mentally the gap between the two sides was huge.
Perhaps overly keen to show off the 'all-in' line-out that belatedly brought them their first try after 57 minutes, Wales ignored the old adage of keeping the scoreboard ticking over when points were on offer.
Twice in the first 10 minutes, with the game score-less, and again when they were 16-0 down before half-time, they opted to kick penalties for touch instead of at goal.
The first time, Rhys Priestland found touch and Wales won the line-out, only to subsequently lose possession.
On the second and third occasions, the fly-half over-cooked his kicks to touch, even if he was adamant the latter had not gone dead. Unforgiveable, if you have decided to go the adventurous route.
Another poor decision, with the game still in its infancy, also had repercussions. Wales took a quick line-out when they were effectively down to 14 men, with Roberts still receiving treatment and clearly struggling. That was compounded by immediately kicking the ball back to the All Blacks. Moments later, with Roberts gingerly attempting to re-join the fray, he was involved in a mix-up with Liam Williams that handed New Zealand another penalty. "Crazy," was how All Blacks coach Steve Hansen described Wales' high-risk approach afterwards, noting how England's failure to take their kicks against Australia last weekend had "probably cost them the game". "Perhaps they were looking for vindication of their 'all-in' line-out," he said. "I don't know if the Welsh kickers would have kicked the goals but if you are thinking about points on the scoreboard, it makes the game a lot tougher mentally and it applies pressure."
Which is exactly what the All Blacks did instead. Without Dan Carter, the world's best in the decision-making department, they barely missed a beat, Aaron Cruden stepping into the maestro's shoes to orchestrate attacks at will, as well as - crucially - potting three penalties in the first 23 minutes.
As former Wales fly-half Jonathan Davies commented at the time: "There is nothing in this game, and yet nine points behind, that changes your mind-set."
At 33 points behind, with half an hour still left, there was a danger of something so hideous it might have scarred this young side's minds for good.
It would certainly have taken a brave man at that moment to suggest the All Blacks wouldn't score another point.
But Wales suddenly remembered themselves, and the spirit in adversity and skills that produced those two tries should do wonders for self-belief.
"Teams of lesser character would have thrown in the towel but we kept taking the game to them," said Gatland.
"We dominated possession and territory in the second half and put an outstanding All Blacks side under lots of pressure for long periods. The players will take a lot of confidence from that second half into next week's game with Australia."
Wales have not beaten the Wallabies since 2008, and lost the last seven meetings - the last five by eight points or less, the last two - this summer - by two points and one, respectively. Such fresh memories of missed opportunities presents another mental hurdle for Gatland's players to overcome this week. Individually though, there were heartening signs for the Welsh - and Lions - coach.
Centre Jonathan Davies showed his class on his return to the side, while Liam Williams enjoyed a promising second cap, announcing his arrival in Test rugby with a memorable first-half hit on All Blacks full-back Israel Dagg.
Fellow wing Alex Cuthbert, despite a couple of missed tackles, showed a renewed appetit
Germany has been in the news lately for its controversial online gambling law which still has many of Europe’s gambling operators wondering why they applied for a license in that jurisdiction. Recently the German government requested that the current online gambling operators who offer sports betting in Germany remove their services until they receive a permit to do so. There are twenty online sports book licenses offered in the German jurisdiction under the terms defined by the state gambling treaty. It is this treaty that the cause of much of the controversy because it exacts a premium cost from registered operators who are looking to make a fair profit for their efforts.
The northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein was a hold out in regards to the treaty signed by all of the other regions and issued licenses that were flexible and viable allowing operators to offer online casino and poker games in addition to sports wagering. That situation changed when the new government in Schleswig-Holstein reviewed their position and threatened to revoke the current licenses granted to various operators who have invested a great deal of time and money in the process. Those companies affected have also made noises that they will seek compensation if the area revokes their licenses.
December 20th 2012 was the deadline set for operators to submit their applications for a sports betting license. That deadline was extended to January 7th 2013 but has once again been pushed back to January 21st 2013 after officials in the German State of Hesse said they need more time in order to process the applications and the many questions the large number of applicants have. The issue of the gambling treaty in Germany has been a political football with the German court determining the gambling treaty legal and compliant with the European Union rules. The European Commission disagreed with the German court and demanded action to rectify the issue in two years. Germany’s Federal Court of Justice will deliver a verdict on the matter by Jan. 24, 2013.
German Online Sports Betting Application Deadline Extended
Jessica Ennis has called for more attention to be paid to top-level women's sport after being confirmed as one of five women on this year's shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
The award ran into controversy last year when not one woman was included on the final voting list, but this year Ennis is joined by Nicola Adams, Katherine Grainger, Ellie Simmonds and Sarah Storey.
Ennis told the Radio Times: "We need more coverage of women's sport and we need to get women involved in coaching and administration. It's important that girls aren't afraid of sport."
She added: "I remember when I first started doing weight training, I didn't want to be any good because I didn't want to be all muscly.
"My coach sat me down and said that if I had more muscles than the average woman, but won an Olympic gold medal, it would be worth it. He was right, but it's hard when you're younger and want to look like everyone else."
Tour de France champion and Olympic time trial gold medallist Bradley Wiggins is the bookmakers' favourite to scoop the award, ahead of double Olympic champion Mo Farah and US Open winner Andy Murray.
World golf number one Rory McIlroy declared his delight at making the list for the second straight year, saying: "It is a real honour to be nominated two years in a row.
"With it being an Olympic year, and with so many outstanding achievements in British sport in 2012, the voting is sure to go right down to the wire."
Along with swimmer Simmonds and cyclist Storey, David Weir was the third Paralympian to make the list after his magnificent four-gold haul from London.
The list also included former winner Sir Chris Hoy, who became the most successful British Olympian in terms of gold medals when he won his seventh in London, and sailor Ben Ainslie, who won his fourth.
Ennis wants more focus on women's sport | National & UK Sport News, Latest National Sport Headlines & England Sports
TV3 's late night daily programme Sports Tonight is being cancelled from the end of the year.
Some of its content would be folded into Nightline, which is broadcast just before Sports Tonight and has no sports content, TV3 spokesperson Rachel Lorimer said.
It was a little bit early to say what would happen to the show's presenter Howard Dobson.
"We're looking to redeploy the Sports Tonight team into other parts of news and current affairs," Lorimer said.
Minimal, if any, redundancies were anticipated, but those issues had to be worked through with the employees individually.
Lorimer would not comment on the reason for the decision, just saying that Sports Tonight had a good run.
Dobson recently attracted some attention for choking up when talking about Shane Cameron's boxing defeat.
The New Zealand Herald quoted TV3 head of news and current affairs Mark Jennings saying Sports Tonight's ratings were not as good as they had been and there were better options for overseas non-sport programming in the 11pm time slot.
Howard Dobson Sport Tonight Cancelled by TV3 | Stuff.co.nz
That’s the nickname Shane Nuttley earned because he has the cojones to hurtle down a five-storey-tall skating rink with bumps and jumps and gaps in the glassy, undulating surface, all the while dodging out-of-control competitors also racing at breakneck speed.
The nickname stuck. Quite literally, in fact: Nuttley has a tattoo of wing nuts inked on his abdomen.
To be fair, any rider who participates in the Red Bull Crashed Ice extreme sport — it will be held this weekend in Niagara Falls — probably has to be a little crazy, since a maniacal capacity for risk-taking is the competitive edge required to win one of the world’s most extreme sports — a combination of ice skating, downhill racing and boardercross, along a 460-metre track that includes a 76-metre vertical drop. Races last about 40 seconds.
“It’s a five-storey drop. Four racers go at once. And the only way to stop is to finish,” says Nuttley.
The Red Bull Niagara Falls event begins this weekend with just under 200 competitors, 20 of them women, competing separately. By Saturday night the field will be narrowed to just four. Finally, there will be just one: the top dog.
“You’ve got to be an adrenalin junkie,” says Nuttley. “It’s a weekend of being a rock star.”
Nuttley is 39 — he started skating at 6 — and works as a power-skating instructor and consultant on film and television projects involving hockey (Tooth Fairy, about a hockey player, is one example). He is also the inventor of a nifty little gadget called The Blade Swipe, which does pretty much what you’d expect: It removes excess snow from the blades of skates. The Niagara Falls event will be his seventh race, all of which have been in Canada.
The first event was held in Stockholm in 2001, after Red Bull executives were asked to sponsor a sport based on downhill in-line skating. The wrinkle with Crashed Ice events is that each course is custom designed and constructed for each event. Contestants get a few practice runs on the course, but that’s about all — until it’s time to do it for real.
On this afternoon in mid-November, Nuttley and Scott Croxall are training for the Niagara Falls event at Downview Area. The two men repeatedly skate toward the net, building speed, then hurtling to the other side.
Nuttley says he remains fit throughout the year with sprint training, cardio workouts, weight training and circuit training that includes sit-ups, push ups and burpies — those repeated, explosive leaps from a crouched position into the air. His off-ice training also includes trampoline work to strengthen his legs and core.
Nutrition is also key, he says, which means a somewhat repetitive diet of energy supplements, protein shakes and chicken. “You live like a hockey player,” he observes, “You can’t compare this to another sport. Sometimes it’s a crap shoot. You hit a bad rut or another competitor collides into you and takes you out. There are so many other factors besides the skating.”
But, when all is said and done, determination is the key.
“It’s a race,” says Nuttley, who insists that this is a sport that gives an edge to the competitor who most wants to win.
“You’ve got to push yourself to the edge of control.”
The event is open to anyone — including novices who feel they’ve got the talent and the strength and the will to make it to the bottom. Thousands of online ballots are submitted to the Red Bull Crashed Ice website. The organization randomly chooses candidates it will test on flat-ice obstacle courses to get a sense of how they will do on the downhill rink.
Croxall, 22, who is also a profession water-skier, representing Canada in international events, says the sport has a way of highlighting particular fears in each athlete. “Some don’t like the jumping. Some don’t like the steep part.”
“You’ve got to have quick feet. You’ve got to be strong on your edges,” he says. “Still, I’ve seen NHL players slide down the track on their faces.”
And, obviously, it’s dangerous. Nuttley says he has never broken a bone during a Crashed Ice event. Croxall has damaged a wrist and injured his knee.
Christian Papillon, 34, is Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship sport director. He says the sport has become more technically difficult over the years. “We are challenging the riders even more,” he says. “It’s a mental game, a confidence game — to fight the track and the other riders. Everyone is looking to finish first. You’re always comparing yourself to the other riders. But you have to be confident that you’re better.”
The rigorous training means that the number of injuries have declined since 2001. The competitors are protected with certified gear from helmets to shin pads and gloves. They are also well coached, these days, says Papillon, a former competitor who spent three years on Canada’s team. “And there are no pointy edged blades — to keep it safe.”
By this weekend, Nuttley and Croxall and all the other contestants will be physically primed for the gruelling 40-second test. But it is the psychological fitness that may tip the balance.
Croxall, who has represented Canada around the world, echoes Nuttley about the importance of getting psyched up. The race, he insists, is “50 per cent mental. You’ve got to know how to use adrenalin to your advantage. You learn over years how to tap into that adrenalin but not drain it. I’ve seen guys completely sketch themselves out before a race. It takes a lot of experience.”
Red Bull Crashed Ice event is an extreme sport that demands extreme fitness - thestar-com
Aspiring sumo wrestler Mainoumi once convinced doctors to inject silicone into his scalp to meet height requirements for the ancient Japanese sport. Such sacrifice is a rarity now in a sport beset by scandals and with popularity at an all-time low.
With a history spanning centuries, sumo once graced the Imperial courts of Japan and wrestlers were held in the highest regard. Sponsors lavished gifts on the hulking giants and to join the ranks of the sumo was considered a worthy occupation.
Those days are long gone, however.
Tarnished by scandals involving drug use, bout-fixing, violence and alleged links to Japanese organised crime, sumo struggles to fill stadiums and attract new fans.
Such is its decline that last month only one person applied to take the sport's entrance exam.
This brought the total number of applicants for the year to just 56, the lowest since the current system of staging six major tournaments a year was introduced in 1958.
That compares to a peak of 223 in 1992 when muscle-bound Japanese brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana fired up the sport with their dynamic fighting styles.
"We should be wracking our brains to find solutions," said Shoji Kagamiyama, head of a sumo training gym.
"At this rate there will be more wrestlers quitting sumo than coming in. If that trend continues there will be none left. New wrestlers are our most precious commodity."
Last year sumo racked up debts of almost $50 million following a match-fixing sting and widespread arrests which led to a television black-out and a government ticking off.
The sport also drew outrage across Japan when a former gym boss was sentenced to six years in prison after a 17-year-old wrestler was beaten to death.
Last year, a gym chief was given a severe dressing down for beating three young wrestlers with a golf club for breaking curfew and not wearing traditional kimono outside.
"We don't know the reason why the numbers are dropping," a Japan Sumo Association (JSA) official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
"You would have to ask (applicants) why, or if the problems have had anything to do with their decision."
The situation is the latest manifestation of a long, slow decline. Public interest in the once-packed tournaments has been falling steadily over the past decade, with both crowds and television viewing figures down.
LOSING TO BASEBALL
Even without the scandals, sumo's popularity has been eaten away by 'cooler' sports. Sumo's Spartan lifestyle and warrior code appears lost on a modern Japan obsessed with glitz and celebrity.
While baseball continues to rule the roost, there is a growing challenge from soccer, whose 'cool factor' has rocketed since the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, stealing still further fans.
Sumo also lacks home-grown heroes such as baseball's Ichiro Suzuki, who has broken Major League Baseball records for fun over the past 12 years, or soccer's Shinji Kagawa, who sealed a big-money transfer to Manchester United earlier this year.
"There's no question that sumo is at a turning point," said Eiji Takase, editor-in-chief of "Sumo" magazine.
"Compared to many professional sports the pay is relatively low and children think other athletes, like soccer players, are much cooler."
Newly promoted yokozuna (grand champion) Harumafuji, the third successive Mongolian to reach the elite rank, suggested that sumo may be too hardcore for today's pampered youth.
"Sumo is a strict sport," he told reporters. "Of course there are people who feel there is no need to put themselves through such hardship in an age of convenience."
In the late 1980s, wrestler Mainoumi talked doctors into injecting silicone into his head after he failed to make the height requirement of 1.73 metres.
He made his professional debut in 1990 and went on to become wildly popular for his incredible upset wins over wrestlers often twice his size.
"Being a wrestler is no longer an attractive job," sumo journalist Taro Arai said. "There used to be many patrons who sponsored gyms.
"They used to buy wrestlers watches, expensive meals, kimonos or give them money.
"Those kinds of sponsors no longer exist. That has made the life of a wrestler less attractive. Practice is hard and painful and it takes a long time to get promoted and paid."
LOCAL HEROES
The JSA has loosened its height and weight (75 kilos) requirements in a bid to lure more applicants, but it could be too little, too late unless they can unearth some local role models.
Some observers feel that many of the problems relating to sumo's image can be traced back to Asashoryu's rise to top dog in 2003.
The Mongolian firebrand's brawls with rivals in bathhouses were out of place with the sport's warrior code, and he tested the JSA's patience further when he was caught playing soccer in a Wayne Rooney shirt after handing in a sick note for a back injury.
Asashoryu's fist-pumping, scowling and growling in the ring were also deemed a serious breach of protocol.
But criticism of Asashoryu ignored the fact he kept sumo afloat almost single-handedly in terms of publicity and ticket sales.
"It's hard to imagine Japanese kids jumping into sumo following foreign wrestlers," said Arai, alluding to the fact that there hasn't been a native Japanese yokozuna since 2003.
"Sumo needs a Japanese star."
Takase agrees that this would help, but also advocates taking pride in the cultural rituals unique to the sport and even returning to basics.
"For example, wrestlers don't need to be so heavy - thinner is better. This makes for faster wrestlers and more interesting bouts, like with Mainoumi," he said.
"If they abandon the rituals and just fight and go home, all it becomes is a fight. It's because it has this spirit that it's sumo - it needs to go back to that."
[url=in-reuters-com/article/2012/11/30/sumo-japan-idINDEE8AT05120121130]Japan's ancient spo
Even as Abhay Singh Chautala and Lalit Bhanot (pictured) got themselves elected, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has come close to being de-recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOA’s fate will be decided at the IOC’s executive board meeting in Lausanne on December 4-5.
Chautala and Bhanot were declared elected unopposed to IOA president and secretary general posts, respectively, by returning officer justice (retd) VK Bali.
But the impact of their election, marred by the wrangling among the sports ministry, the IOC and the IOA, will be felt by the country’s sportspersons who will be unable to participate in any IOC-sponsored events, notably the Olympics and the Asian Games.
The day started with IOA’s acting president, VK Malhotra, forwarding the recent IOC letter to the three-member election panel, comprising justice (retd) Anil Dev Singh, justice (retd) JD Kapur and justice Bali, for appropriate action.
An emergency meeting was called where the members deliberated on the matter. “The letter sent by acting president was seen by us. We deliberated on it in detail and passed an order unanimously,” justice Bali told DNA.
He clarified that there was no request from the IOA to suspend the election process. The returning officer further said a formal notification regarding the new office-bearers will be issued on December 5, along with that of other posts for which elections will take place that day.
Besides Chautala and Bhanot, Virendra Nanavati and N Ramachandran have been elected senior vice-president and treasurer, respectively.
Keenly aware of the seriousness of the IOC’s threat, Chautala’s team immediately swung into action and called on sports minister Jitendra Singh in a bid to find a solution to the new sports code. Though Chautala claimed that “an amicable solution would soon be reached”, a release said the minister insisted that the IOA should accept the code in totality.
Meanwhile, the Chautala group has decided to send two of its members, Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra and vice-president RK Anand, to Lausanne to convince the IOC top brass about their position on the election. Whether they will get to meet the officials concerned is the moot point.
London's volunteer army of "Games Makers" was one of the biggest success stories in a summer when success stories elbowed aside cricket defeats and football transfer tittle-tattle to make us all just a little bit more cheerful.
Paid only with badges, stickers and memories, those beige-trousered philanthropists held the greatest show on Earth together in exactly the same way volunteers hold British sport together.
According to Sport England, there are two million adults who give up at least one hour a week to help out at their local club or at events. It is no exaggeration to say that without them grassroots sport in this country would wither and die.
Acknowledging this is important, with David Cameron talking about the "many heroes and heroines who run the Saturday-morning football, rugby and cricket clubs that provide the answer to getting more sport into our communities".
A recent Sport and Recreation Alliance (SRA) survey revealed red tape was still putting people off from offering their time. In one example, 60% of the country's sports clubs say "health and safety" legislation has a negative impact on their club.
Perhaps this is why 78% of the UK's 150,000 clubs have noticed no change in the number of people volunteering after London 2012; a shame when you consider that 240,000 people applied for a pair of those khaki slacks.
It is possible that the kind of person who wanted to be a Games Maker was already one of Cameron's unheralded "heroes and heroines", the kind of person the Torch Trophy Trust tries to help.
The trust's main function is giving grants of up to £1,000 to grassroots coaches, match officials and organisers so they can improve their skills. Its second key role is to celebrate their achievements.
Nineteen of these community champions will be at London's Army and Navy Club on Monday, and each and every one of them has a story of cheerful enthusiasm and selfless dedication to tell.
BBC Sport - How unpaid volunteers make the sports world go round
You might quibble with the actual figure. How can you definitively say that obesity is costing the State €1.1 billion a year? Especially when it includes estimates for absenteeism and lost productivity.
The figure of €1.1 billion emerged from a study carried out in UCC, which found that conditions commonly associated with obesity – such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes – drive up healthcare costs significantly. Researchers also found that one of the principal causes of absenteeism from work is weight-related lower back pain.
Another estimate last week put the cost to the Exchequer of obesity as higher, at €1.3 billion. It might be higher, it might be lower, but it is certain that the cost is substantial.
And you can't quibble with the facts, which are damning. Because 61 per cent of Irish adults are overweight or obese and 2,000 premature deaths annually in Ireland are attributed to obesity, and over 300,000 children north and south of the border are estimated to be overweight or obese. One in four Irish children are unfit, overweight or obese and have elevated blood pressure, while only one third achieve at least the minimum level of recommended exercise. Physical inactivity is reckoned to cause 27 per cent of diabetes cases and 30 per cent of heart disease cases.
These are pretty stark figures. As noted in the Federation of Irish Sport's latest annual report, "a key element in turning the tide on the rising obesity trend is that all Irish children get the minimum 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day". It adds: "Increased participation in sport therefore will not just improve public health but also could make a significant saving in terms of the money spent on health."
This is the key point. We are spending a fortune dealing with obesity-related diseases and problems after they happen and a tiny amount of money in actually promoting the kind of actions which could prevent them in the first place.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Michael Noonan (pictured) will confirm that there will be less money for sport in 2013. Of course, as we have been learning all weekend, thanks to some callous leaking, that will be the least of the worries for most people.
In the last few weeks we've heard horrific stories about conditions in some of our schools and hospitals. Naturally, at a time when resources are scarce the argument for sport can become confused by emotive language – why should money be made available to some sport or other when it might be better used keeping hospital beds and school classrooms open?
But next year over €20 billion will be spent on health and education, and little more than €40m will be spent on sport, over half of which is earmarked to fund high-performance units and the country's sporting organisations. The health budget this year was €13.5 billion, which should be plenty to run the health service. That it's not is largely down to inefficiencies and lack of flexibility in the system. Fixing those inefficiencies would make a massive difference to health expenditure. So too would making more money available to promote physical activity.
The problem is that schools don't have any money. Most average clubs don't have money either, so there is an over-reliance on volunteers to pick up the slack. More cuts this week will make this situation worse. And it is the nature of these things that disadvantaged and poorer areas will suffer the most.
For decades, governments have been getting off lightly. Despite having lived through an unprecedented era of economic growth, schools all over Ireland still don't have suitable indoor facilities to conduct PE classes.
If it wasn't for the big three, the GAA, FAI and IRFU, sending coaches at their own expense into schools, there would be black spots all over the country. Because they have been doing the work that has been abdicated by the State, and the GAA in particular has a long history of doing the government's job when it comes to health and fitness.
The Munster Council recently conducted a review of its coaching network and found that GAA activity in schools in the province currently accounts for 46,000 hours, the equivalent of 62 full-time PE teachers, and that the value generated by GAA activity in schools was €2.2m.
It's not all about the money. Between 1999 and 2012, we spent somewhere in the region of €1.3bn on sport and what have we to show for it? There was a clear failure to establish a link between the development of facilities and the promotion of participation because there was no coherent national strategy, and there still isn't.
We know what the problems are, and we know how to fix them. It doesn't require huge sums – €10m spent next year will knock many multiples of that off the health spend in 20 years' time, so long as it is spent correctly.
Investing in sport is investing in health - Other Sports, Sport - Independent.ie
Sports Personality of the Year contender David Weir reveals his aspirations of making it as a DJ and why Daniel Craig should play him in his life story.
Weir, who dominated the T54 category at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, winning the 800m, 1,500m, 5,000m and marathon titles, has been short-listed by an expert panel of sports specialists for the BBC Sports Personality crown, with the winner to be revealed at London's ExCeL on Sunday, 16 December.
BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2012
Venue: ExCel London
Date: Sunday, 16 December
Time: 19:30 GMT
Coverage: Live on BBC One, BBC Radio 5 live and the BBC Sport website
West Ham's owners must agree to share the profits from any future sale of the Premier League club if they are to be granted the right to move into the Olympic Stadium, the BBC has learned.
The Hammers will be announced on Wednesday as the number one choice to become the stadium's main tenant. But Mayor of London Boris Johnson says West Ham's market value would be increased significantly by winning the 99-year lease and therefore any deal rests on club owners David Sullivan and David Gold meeting the key condition.
With so much public money invested in the stadium - first to build it and now to convert it for top-flight football - Johnson is concerned that the taxpayer could be left out of pocket if the duo later decided to sell the club on.
Adding retractable seating and fully extending the roof on the venue - now seen as an iconic venue following London's successful staging of the 2012 Games - will cost between £130m and £150m, on top of the £429m it cost to build the stadium for the Games.
The vast majority of that conversion money will come from a mix of public funding, including a £40m loan from Newham Council, the local authority.
For some time, there has been concern over a shortfall in the funding, especially with West Ham only willing to commit around £15m, but sources tell me that is now less of a problem.
Instead, the major stumbling block is the question of how to divide up the profits from any future sale of the club.
Sullivan and Gold are thought to have spent around £50m in acquiring a 50% controlling stake in West Ham in January 2010. They have also covered the club's vast debts, estimated to be around £70m. With the Premier League's domestic TV rights set to increase by 60% from next season, West Ham could become a very attractive acquisition if they can retain top-flight status and secure a long-term future at the Olympic Stadium.
They would also raise money from the sale of their current ground, Upton Park.
The board of the London Legacy Development Corporation, chaired by Johnson, will meet on Wednesday to rank the four organisations who have submitted bids to use the stadium. In addition to West Ham, League One side Leyton Orient, UCFB College of Football Business and a consortium linked to Formula 1 have all tabled offers.
West Ham, currently lying eighth in the Premier League table in their first season back in the top flight, will be ranked first - another significant step on the road to securing a lasting legacy for the stadium - but it could be some months before a deal is finally completed.
BBC Sport - West Ham given ultimatum over Olympic Stadium deal
BBC Sport has launched a new-look mobile browser site which has been tailored to work across the growing range of mobile devices.
The site uses the latest responsive design technology so it automatically scales to fit different sized screens.
Also featuring easy-to-use navigation, it includes users' favourite links.
There are new live scores and football fixtures, results, tables and live pages for every Premier League game, and a host of other new features.
The site will continue to be upgraded over the next 12 months, and BBC Sport will also introduce an app early in the new year.
A growing proportion of the BBC Sport audience arrives via mobile devices - with larger traffic spikes around live sport such as football - and up to two million people a day accessing via a device at weekends.
"On this new responsive mobile sport site all devices get the same range of stories, indexes and sport statistics but the layout changes," writes Lucie McLean, executive product manager for BBC Future Media, in a BBC blog.
"We hope you enjoy the new features and welcome your feedback on how the site looks and works on your mobile device."
BBC Sport - BBC Sport launches new-look mobile browser site
UEFA's executive committee has given the green light to holding the European championships in 2020 across the continent.
Former French captain Michel Platini, who is president of UEFA, first mooted the idea of holding the tournament in a number of cities earlier this year, as a way of avoiding high costs at a time of dire financial constraints in many countries.
'UEFA Euro 2020 will be staged across the continent, in various major cities, following a decision taken today,' said the ruling body's secretary-general Gianni Infantino, calling the tournament in eight years' time 'A Euro for Europe'.
'The response has been extremely positive from all the national associations,' he added, apart from Turkey.
But there was widespread disbelief among many fans on the micro-blogging site Twitter, in particular over the potential cost of travelling to watch games in a number of countries.
'Meanwhile, the chief execs of (low cost airlines) Ryanair and Easyjet are jumping for joy,' noted one user.
A decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup has already caused disquiet among fans, especially a plan to host the finals during the Gulf winter months - mid-season for European leagues.
Infantino said he was not in a position to say how many countries and cities would be involved but if the project was ready in January, it would be rubber-stamped then or at the executive committee meeting on March 23.
Cities were likely to be chosen in early 2014 - six years before the start of the tournament, he added.
Turkey, which has put itself forward as a candidate for 2020 alongside Azerbaijan and Georgia and a three-way bid from the Republic of Ireland, Wales and Scotland, was the only country opposed to the project.
Istanbul is also a candidate to host the Olympic Games in the same year, although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that having one country host two major events so close to each other is against its rules.
FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke, speaking in a personal capacity, said last week that he failed to grasp the concept of a continent-wide tournament, saying it would destroy the competition.
Platini said before the eve of this year's Euro finals that the 60th anniversary of the competition, which is held every four years, could involve '12 or 13 cities across Europe' and that most of the 53 UEFA federations were in favour.
Central to his argument was that it would make organisation easier, after serious concerns about cost overruns and infrastructure delays in this year's hosts Poland and particularly Ukraine.
A new European Olympics, similar to the Asian or Pan-American Games, could be added to the sporting calendar by 2015.
Delegations from the 49 members of the European Olympic Committee (EOC) are meeting in Rome this weekend to vote on the proposal.
Backed heavily by EOC president Patrick Hickey, the European Games were first suggested in 2010.
The idea initially received a cool response but it now seems likely that the proposal will be voted through.
Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey are believed to be interested in hosting the new multi-sport event, with the energy-rich Azerbaijan being the most enthusiastic of the trio. The British Olympic Association (BOA) is one of the 49 members of the EOC, and chief executive Andy Hunt has travelled to the Italian capital for Friday's meetings and Saturday's vote.
Hunt tweeted on Friday: "On my way to Rome today for the European Olympic Committee. Main topic will be a decision on the proposed new European Games."
The BOA is understood to be cautiously supportive of the concept, provided room can be found for it in a crowded timetable.
That, however, is a major worry for some of the larger sports in the Olympic movement, with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) particularly opposed to any new addition to the international schedule.
With athletics being the cornerstone of the Summer Olympics, the European version would struggle to attract broadcasters and sponsors without the sport. But the IAAF would be reluctant to risk any dilution of its biennial World Championships.
There are similar concerns at other big global sports such as basketball, swimming and volleyball, all of whom have major events of their own to protect.
However, Hickey was confident the vote would be successful. He said: "There is a great interest in Europe to see European champions. So let's do it. Let's give it a go."
Over the last 60 years there have been very few sports Ronnie Long hasn't turned his hand to, from cycling to athletics, badminton and GAA, he's been involved in all at a variety of levels.
His love of sport started with cycling. In September 1953 he joined the Limerick Road Club and that same year he competed in his first race. The following year he was a member of the Limerick team which won the 50-mile Irish Team Title and during his career he competed in numerous national road races.
From there Long became involved in athletics and over the course of his career was an event and team manager on over 56 occasions including the Montreal Olympics and seven other major championships. Out of all the events that he was involved in, the World Indoors in Indianapolis in 1987 is the one that stands out.
"We took four athletes, Eamonn Coghlan, Marcus O'Sullivan, Frank O'Mara and Paul Donovan and we brought back three medals. Marcus won the 1,500m and Frank and Paul came first and second (in the 3,000m). That was particularly significant because it was the only time that two Irish flags went up together on the same podium. I don't think it happened before and I haven't seen it happen since. It was a special moment."
Long served as the president of Athletics Ireland from 1994-1995 and was also one of the people responsible from bringing the World Cross-Country Championships to Limerick in 1979.
He was instrumental in the organisation of the event which saw the Irish team take second place in front of 30,000 spectators. Today a strong team from Ireland will travel to Budapest for the European Cross-Country Championships and although Long thinks they will perform well, especially defending champion Fionnuala Britton, he feels that there is room for improvement in Irish athletics.
"I think there is too much emphasis on road racing and I think this is promoting mediocrity. I know it is helping the general population of the country to get fitter but, in relation to producing athletes, it's not the way to go."
Long lives in Limerick and he recently received a National Award for Volunteers in Irish Sport. He is a regular attendee of many sports events and can often be heard on Limerick 95 talking about athletics.
where are they now? - Other Sports, Sport - Independent.ie
World number one Mark Selby won the biggest title of his career by beating Shaun Murphy 10-6 in the final of the UK Championship.
Selby had gone 2-1 ahead but Murphy won three frames in a row to hold the advantage.
But Selby hit back, winning the last two in the first session and then forged 6-5 ahead in the evening
Murphy's sublime 65 clearance restored parity at 6-6 but Selby won four on the trot to triumph.
"I am over the moon and it means a great deal. It makes it even more special to beat someone of Shaun's class," Selby told BBC Sport.
"It was a strange game; it was not pretty. I was twitching all over the place. "I never really give in until the last ball is potted and that is me all over. If I was not like that, I would not have got to the final."
The first all-English UK final since 1992 was an enthralling encounter.
The modest number of high breaks - there were no centuries in the final - meant a battle of attrition was fought.
Ultimately, it was Selby who capped a return to the top of the world rankings by capturing his third ranking win.
After question marks over his credibility were raised during his last stint at world number one, he dispelled those by finally triumphing in the sport's second most important event.
Murphy had already won the competition in 2008 but was unable to gather any momentum with his attacking style of play, being thwarted by the tenacity of his opponent.
"Mark is the hardest player on tour by a mile. He is a worthy world number one and fully deserves tonight," Murphy said afterwards.
"This tournament does not owe me anything. I should have gone out to Luca Brecel and then Ali Carter but I have had a great week and great support.
"I have been beaten by the best in the world." The first session was a mix of sublime and poor snooker, as the players took frames with one opportunity, plus missed relatively easy shots.
Selby opened up a 2-1 lead before Murphy won three in a row, knocking in breaks of 83 and 98 in the process, but Selby dug in to take the two remaining frames and level at 4-4.
'The Jester from Leicester' began the final session with a 58 break and had chances to clinch the opener. Instead he returned to his chair and watched on as Murphy stole the frame with a superb 65 clearance.
And he could have pinched another but this time failed to capitalise on Selby's miss.
The same pattern emerged in the next. Selby had his hand on the table, missed a red and 'The Magician' could have cleared up but failed to pocket the pink. His opponent nicked the frame for a narrow 6-5 advantage.
But Murphy pegged him back to level once again.
Breaks of 50 and 98 allowed Selby to open up a two-frame advantage for the first time and Murphy's miss on a blue in the following frame meant Selby was able to move one away from victory.
Murphy had been unable to score heavily throughout the match and in the end it was his downfall as Selby ground out the remaining frame he required to pick up the trophy and £125,000 prize money.
BBC Sport - UK Snooker Championship 2012: Mark Selby beats Shaun Murphy
The hottest topic in both the Beltway and in betting agencies is Hillary Clinton 2016. Yes, the 2016 US presidential election betting action is underway! Current polls say that Florida Senator Marco Rubio is the top pick for the GOP presidential nod, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the overwhelming choice for the Democrats. With regards to Clinton, the bookmakers couldn't agree more.
Ladbrokes opens 2016 race betting with Clinton as clear favourite
According to online bookmaker Ladbrokes, Clinton - who has already achieved a record of sorts as the FIRST First Lady to hold public office (as US senator) - may well attain another one as the first female US president. Ladbrokes says that Clinton is trading as an 11/2 favorite to win the 2016 race - with no one nearly close enough save perhaps Vice President Joe Biden at 16/1. Interestingly, too, after eight years of a Democratic presidency the Democrats are trading even to keep the White House (the Republicans are at 8/11).
William Hill and other bookmakers favor Hillary too
The world's biggest bookmaker, William Hill, has named Hillary Clinton as their 5/2 favorite to be the next US president. She is followed by Jeb Bush at 6/1, Joe Biden and Martin O'Malley tied at 8/1, Andrew Cuomo at 9/1, and Marco Rubio at 10/1. Meanwhile, Paddy Power is taking bets for Clinton at 7/2, Paul Ryan at 8/1, Marco Rubio at 10/1, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie both at 12/1; while Bet365 is also putting its money on Clinton at 5/5.
The politics of betting
While betting on political elections is outlawed in the US, in the UK, US presidential elections have proven to be great money-makers for betting agencies. The last election alone generated more than £1 million ($1.5 million) worth of bets for William Hill, with up to $16 million reportedly bet across the betting industry.
But it's not just about the money alone. According to William Hill spokesman Graham Shape, the last election also proved that bookies (more than pollsters) may be better indicators of election outcomes, especially a very close race. The fact is, UK bookies beat even the US media in calling the 2012 election for Obama!
Bookmakers Favor Hillary Clinton for 2016 - Special Reports - Onlinecasinoreports-com
Britain will pump money into its most successful Olympic sports in a bid to match its London 2012 medal haul at the Rio de Janeiro Games in four years’ time, funding agency UK Sport said.
"Investment will be targeted where it has the greatest chance of succeeding using our ‘no compromise’ philosophy, which sets out to reinforce the best, support those developing and challenge the underperforming," UK Sport CE Liz Nicholl said in a statement.
"UK Sport aims to support all sports and athletes deemed to have medal potential in Rio 2016, regardless of whether they are individual or team disciplines."
UK Sport, the body which distributes government funds and National Lottery money to the various sports governing bodies, will announce who gets what next week, but minority team sports such as handball and volleyball are preparing for bad news.
Olympic and Paralympic sports were given £313.4m by UK Sport in the period 2009-13, helping the country to take third place in the medals table at London 2012, behind the US and China.
Britain won 29 gold medals, with the majority in cycling (eight), rowing (four), athletics (four), equestrian (three) and boxing (three).
The appearance of British teams in sports such as handball, volleyball, water polo and basketball was largely symbolic as Britain entered Olympic teams in every event for the first time.
However, with little realistic chance of medals in those sports in four years, UK Sport is set to reduce their funding under its no-nonsense "no compromise" policy.
The targeting of money to the elite sports has led to fears that the sporting benefit of London 2012 will not filter down to low-profile team sports in Britain.
"If we say we are not going to fund you unless you perform in a sport with a track history of medals then the legacy of our home Games is actually a reduction of opportunity not an increase," British Volleyball president Richard Callicott said in the Sunday Times.
"That’s not what I thought London 2012 was supposed to represent."
UK Sport seeks medals at Rio 2016 | Other Sport | BDlive
Each of the 12 Sports Personality of the Year contenders has an advocate explaining why they should win. Here, former Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman puts the case for fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins.
Most of us, come New Year's Eve, will look back with a glass in hand at some point and ask ourselves: "Was that a good year for me?"
For most of us too there will be nuances, disappointments and occasional regrets. But most of us did not win the Tour de France, take our fifth Olympic gold medal in front of rabid home support, or play a key walk-on part in an Olympic opening ceremony a few miles away from where we were brought up.
Did Bradley Wiggins dare to dream, 12 months ago, that his 2012 might somehow turn out as it has?
For almost the entirety of its 99-race history, the idea that the Tour might be won by a Briton was not just far-fetched but never considered. As a Kilburn kid studying the results in Cycling Weekly, pedalling across London to be schooled at the dilapidated Herne Hill velodrome or making his time-trial debut on the Hayes bypass, Wiggins was a product of an idiosyncratic British scene, obsessed with the Tour de France but living a life a hundred times removed from its glamour and prestige.
Even years later, a master of the boards and record-breaking Olympian, it seemed impossible he could emulate his hero, American three-time winner Greg LeMond, and win the thing.
No Olympic track gold medallist had ever gone on to win Le Tour. No champion of the track had ever looked at ease in the mountains. Few have made a chaotic war of a race appear such a procession.
"The whole year has been surreal," says Chris Boardman, one of the very few other Britons to have worn the Tour leader's yellow jersey, and an Olympic pursuit champion himself. "To have imagined a British winner of the Tour even two years ago was almost impossible. "To go from where we were to having a British rider and team frankly dominate a sporting monument like the Tour - well, I never thought I'd see the day.
"[Team Sky boss] Dave Brailsford said it would happen, but he's a risk-taker. He said it almost as a challenge, but he's like a free climber in that regard. A free climber will always be the first to the top of the mountain, but there will be a big pile of them at the bottom who didn't make it.
"Bradley was constantly harried by Dave. They both thought about it 24/7 and fretted over every tiny detail."
If there are few shortcuts in sport, the only certainty in preparing for one of its toughest tests is that you must suffer.
Guided and cajoled by coach Shane Sutton and sport scientist Tim Kerrison, Wiggins - 23rd in 2010 after finishing third in 2009, each following Lance Armstrong's disqualification - took himself away into Tenerife's Mount Teide national park. It is 7,000ft above sea level, far from family, far from home, where he climbed the hard yards.
"The critical factor was when Brad finished fourth [since revised up to third in 2009]," says Boardman. "That was the point when you think to yourself: I actually believe this is possible.
"You go into another gear you didn't know you had. Everything takes a back seat to this challenge.
"Even then I'm not sure everyone believed him when he said he could win it, me included. When he finished fourth, tactically he couldn't have ridden any better. Physiologically he knew how to train; he had the best conditioning coaches in the world, and weight-wise he seemed to have nothing to lose. "So where did the next step come from? He believed, and Dave believed. Bolstering the whole team around him made a difference - he had multiple captains on the road - but he became a superior rider."
Those lucky enough to have seats in the velodrome, or Olympic Stadium, or stands at Eton Dorney, will never forget the atmosphere they helped create. Yet there was something special about those events around the streets and through the parks where no tickets were required, where anyone who cared - and thousands and thousands did - could turn up with flags and facepaint and watch the Olympic carnival for free.
When Wiggins rolled down the start-ramp on that warm Wednesday afternoon in Kingston, he was pedalling into a tunnel of patriotic noise that would not abate until he returned, still flat over his time-trial bars, 50 minutes and 39 seconds later.
"Brad knew he had an opportunity that would only come around once in his lifetime," says Boardman.
"The Tour too is a curious thing; if you can survive it, it can leave you in the best form of your life. Your body reaches a peak, even though you've been on your knees.
"The hard work beforehand was dealing with the massive expectation. Once he was in the event, particularly with his nose in front, that crowd gave him a huge emotional response.
"He had memorised the script. But to be able to deliver on demand, on a specific day and time, is an extraordinary feat."
Neither was Wiggins's dominance restricted to the great triumphs that ended on the Champs-Elysees or in front of Hampton Court Palace, even if he rode in yellow for a remarkable 1,282 miles of the three-week Tour route.
During his hat-trick of victories at Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie and Criterium du Dauphine he wore the leader's jersey for 15 of the 21 racing days, a pre-eminence to leave rivals and competing teams choking in the Team Sky dust.
Despite that superiority he was equally never less than a team-mate, leading out sprinter Mark Cavendish twice in the Tour's final week and burying himself as part of the GB road race team that tried valiantly, yet vainly, to set Cavendish up for another sprint victory on the Mall two weeks later. Success, many sportsmen claim, will not change them. With Wiggins you believe him.
Whether standing atop a team car in Paris and beginning his impromptu victory speech by pretending to read out some raffle numbers, lounging in those ludicrous Hampton Court
Hamilton's last race with the team which has supported him since he was 13 is Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix. He joins Mercedes for 2013.
Asked by BBC Sport how he will feel after the race, the 27-year-old said: "I might have to keep my helmet on.
"It's going to be tough. It's my family and I'll be going elsewhere. It's best I don't talk about it too much." Hamilton's eyes then welled up. BBC pit-lane reporter Lee McKenzie said: "You get choked up thinking about it?"
Hamilton replied: "Mmm."
He said of his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger: "My missus is always telling me every bit of time is precious and I'm going to maximise the time I have this weekend."
The 2008 world champion said making the decision to join Mercedes, which he did while on holiday in Thailand after the Singapore Grand Prix at the end of September, had been a weight off his shoulders.
"It started getting more and more intense with the questions every weekend - when are you going to do this, where are you going to go?" he said.
"Every weekend and then the last month or so was horrible.
"I had that pressure on and in my personal life when I'm stressed I don't know how to get it out of me, and I was very stressed and then I had to do my job. "I had to still perform, and also my auntie passed [away] which was really the toughest couple of weeks, three weeks we had as a family because we hadn't had anything like that happen to us before. It was just a really horrible period of time.
"And when I finally sat down, I was sitting down in Thailand. And I'd gone there to go for the week with Nicole, but it didn't work out that way, and I went there for a literally a day and I was just sitting by the pool thinking about life and I was just able to release, and it was: 'This is what I want to do.'
"It became clear that I wanted to try something new and I was going to go for it. And then I called Martin [Whitmarsh, McLaren team boss].
"It was the most difficult call I've ever had to make because we'd grown so close and he had been so supportive and I didn't want to let people down.
"But at the end of the day you have to let people down sometimes to make decisions."
He said he would still be leaving even if he had won more than one world title with McLaren.
"I think so - six years is a long time, 15 years is a long time. This is not… I don't see it as… when someone leaves a job, I don't see it like that.
"I really feel as if I'm leaving my home and going elsewhere. I've learnt my skills and I've got all the right skills to go out and try something different."
Hamilton admitted he had found the pressures of life in F1 difficult to deal with at times during his career. "In F1 things do change a lot," he said. "Before I was just there to race but then in F1 everything changes. Media, pressure from sponsors, money, fame - all these things come into it.
"They're thrown into one pot and you don't know what's going on and it's definitely taken a while to grow up and grow into it, which I still feel I'm doing.
"But I feel I've been at my best I've been so far both on the driving side but also in my personal life."
He added: "It wasn't my target to have a glamorous girlfriend but it just so happened that I had the biggest crush on this girl and I happened to meet her. And it was like - you're not going anywhere!"
He said he had no regrets about his decision to join Mercedes, who have failed to score a single point since Hamilton's decision was announced.
"I have to trust my decision. It is what it is," he said. "I made it; I stick to it.
"I don't for one second think: 'Oh, I wish I didn't.' I feel: 'Right, when my job is done here, how am I going to turn that car around?'
"I've studied everything about it. I know how it looks. I know it doesn't look right. There are going to be things they do better than McLaren and there are things we do that will be better than them and I'll hopefully be able to string both of those together."
BBC Sport - Brazilian GP: Tearful Lewis Hamilton discusses McLaren exit