IF YOU fancy yourself as having al sporting edge but pull muscles just watching the football, then there may be an alternative game where you can kick goals.

Between August 21-29, The Third Mind Sports Olympiad requires participants to' vigorously exercise :their minds in tournaments that will leave you sweating.

Backgammon, bridge, draughts, dominoes, scrabble, rummikub, Chinese chess and chess - and they're just the easy ones.

Consisting of 100-odd tournaments, the games are open to anybody. Oh, and did I mention, there's £100,000 prize money up for grabs?

For those all-rounders there is the Decamentathion, which is a four-hour challenge in 10 different games and mental skills including chess, creative thinking, draughts, IQ, mastermind and memory skills.

Then there is the World Memory Championships. Last year's champion Andi Bell, memorised the sequence of pack of cards in 34.03 seconds. Supposedly, everyone has similar abilities to remember as long as you use your imagination to create memorable imagery representation. It works as a filing system for your thoughts.

The speed reading competition is another mind-boggling concept Judgement is based on how long it takes participants to read a novel then give a presentation to those who have read it in-depth. They have to include knowledgeable comments about the plot characters, setting, philosophy and symbolism.

TNT suggest that if you finish reading this piece thoroughly in less than 30 seconds, you will have a fair stab at winning the championships.

The Swiss system is used for most of the tournaments, so even if you loss you don't get knocked out you just keep playing against participants who have the same score as you.

While word wizards will be In their element when the Scrabble Olympiad Championship is up for grabs they may struggle when it comes to the Mental Calculation World Championship.

Participants are unable to make notes or use a calculator while solving equations. Ouch!

For further information, address and times check www.mindsports.co.uk