A SPORTS mad Newport man is aiming to become the world’s first endurance spectator by taking in 365 different live sports in 365 days.

Kieren Blake, 41, will travel to 48 countries across the globe during the challenge, racking up more than 800,000 air miles in the process.

The St Julians native estimates that he’s already attended 4,000 sporting events in his lifetime and even travelled back for Newport County’s Wembley appearances in 2912 and 2013.

His mammoth challenge kicked off at the Melbourne International Speedway on Saturday and he will be taking in everything from Christmas tree throwing in Germany to sumo wrestling in Japan in the coming year.

Among the 365 sporting events Mr Blake, who currently lives in Melbourne in Australia, also plans to attend are greasy pole climbing in England, underwater rugby in Sweden, goat racing in Trinidad and Tobago and pickleball in the United States.

The plan has been 15 years in the making and, entirely self-funded, Mr Blake said he felt it was now or never to finally begin his expedition.

He said: “I only told about 10-20 people for fear that someone would do this before me. About three years ago, I started to list as many sports as I could and piecing together some sort of itinerary.

“It’s quite funny as there are regular changes due to events being moved, postponed or just the lack of updated information meaning I have to find replacements in it to make up the numbers.

“I won’t be watching just any sporting event. I’ll be trying to get to the biggest and most prestigious sporting events of each and every sport that fits into our annual calendar.

“I have devoted my whole life to sport and now I am planning to go one step further and spend a whole year doing just that.”

To see Mr Blake’s schedule and to keep track of his video diary, visit http://365daysofsport.com/?page_id=186.