Britain's Scrabble world champion has set himself a tricky new challenge – to have the board game reclassified as a sport.
Brett Smitheram, 37, is spearheading an online petition to change its status even though it is not currently recognised as a sport anywhere.
Mr Smitheram, who became Scrabble world champion last September, said: ‘Sport has evolved. People always used to look at it and see lots of large people lifting great heavy weights with a very physical involvement.
‘Scrabble has all the mental requirements of a traditional sport – the strategic involvement in, say, snooker or bowls. But there is a physical element as well.
‘In Scrabble if you are not physically capable and fit, your concentration and focus will suffer.’
The petition, which has been launched by the Mindsports Academy, calls upon Sport England and the International Olympic Committee to reclassify the game. It points out that there is no literature on the Sport England website to define what a sport actually is.
Mr Smitheram added: ‘It’s no coincidence that when I won the world championship I’d just come off six months of training and dieting. I found I had much more of an edge.’
His training involved long runs on his treadmill and following a high protein diet of chicken, steak and vegetables. He also cut down his sugar intake.
The Mindsports Academy also wants chess recognised as a sport in the UK, as it is by the IOC and more than 100 countries.