A serious knee injury suffered by reigning world champion Matt Bush means Beth Munro will be carrying Welsh hopes for Team GB when the taekwondo starts at the Tokyo Paralympics next week. It’s a top billing that has come like a bolt from the blue as Tom Prosser reports. Six short months ago, if you had told Welsh taekwondo star Beth Munro she would be going to compete at the Tokyo Paralympics, she would have laughed. It has been a crazy few months for Munro, who had realistically targeted Paris in three years’ time, rather than this summer’s event.

Bronze medalist Paul Karabardak has vowed to chase more silverware next week after winning bronze at the Paralympics The Swansea table tennis veteran finally got on the podium for Great Britain in Tokyo after missing out in 2008, 2012 and 2016. Karabardak won his quarter-final, but had to settle for bronze after losing in three straight games to American Ian Seidenfeld in his semi-final.

Russell Martin slammed an unacceptable display after Swansea City let an early lead slip in a 3-1 defeat at Preston. Joel Piroe’s neat finish put Martin’s men ahead in the 19th minute but their advantage was quickly cancelled out by Liverpool loanee Sepp van den Berg. Emil Riis gave North End the lead in the dying seconds of the first half before Ben Whiteman’s 52nd-minute free-kick settled the outcome.

Mick McCarthy insists Kieffer Moore has not had his head turned by rumours of a move from Cardiff City. Moore has continued to be linked with a transfer to Wolves but with the window due to close on Tuesday night, manager MCarthy insists there has been no official interest in his Wales striker. McCarthy said: “I don’t think the talk about potential transfer moves is affecting him at all.

After almost 18 months in hibernation, live competitive gymnastics in Wales returns over this Bank Holiday weekend with the Rhythmic Welsh Open Championships in Cardiff. Tickets are available for spectators to attend this event, which is being held at the Sport Wales National Centre at Sophia Gardens on Sunday 29th and Monday 30th August. It will be the first Welsh competition since March 2020.

Exactly 40 years ago this weekend, Swansea City played their opening match of the 1981-82 season – their first in the top flight after decades in the lower divisions. The 5-1 victory over Leeds United was one of the greatest days in the club’s history and a young Owen Morgan was there to see it. On April 23, 1975, a triumphant Leeds United team celebrated on the pitch at a packed Nou Camp Stadium having booked their place in the European Cup final. Billy Bremner, Joe Jordan, Peter Lorimer and all had just drawn 1-1 with a Barcelona team boasting the likes of Dutch legends Johann Cruyff and Johan Neeskens in front of 110,000 fans.

Dafydd Lockyer has finally decided to hang up his boots, bringing to an end one of the great semi-professional careers in Welsh rugby. The long-term Pontypridd skipper  let the Sardis Road faithful know of his decision in a Captain’s Blog on the official club website and the game in Wales will be all the poorer without him. “It has been a tough decision, one that I’ve taken some time to consider, but one that I’ve now made. I’ve discussed the situation with my family, with the Ponty coaches and the decision has been made – it’s time to take a step back from the Ponty squad,” he wrote.

Olivia Breen will be the first of Wales’ magnificent seven track and field stars to compete when the athletics schedule gets underway at the Tokyo Paralympics. The sprinter will take to the blocks in the early hours of Saturday morning when she lines up for the women’s T38 100m. The heats start at 2:38am UK time and should Breen qualify, she would line up for the final at a minute after noon the same day.

Georgia Wilson has vowed to gain more inspiration from Lee Pearson after she became the first Welsh medal winner at the Tokyo Paralympics. The Abergele equestrian rider took bronze in the dressage grade 11 individual test, while her GB teammate Pearson took a 12th Paralympic gold medal of his illustrious career. Wilson – riding Sakura – finished in an impressive third on her Games debut with 72.765 per cent, just two weeks after a late call-up to the squad to replace Sophie Christiansen.

By Paul Jones Wayne Hatswell insists Newport County will quickly put their heavy defeat to Southampton behind them, as they now aim to claim successive league away wins when they take on Salford on Saturday. The Exiles who lost 8-0 to a ruthless Southampton team, welcomed a full crowd back to Rodney Parade on Wednesday evening for the first time since the pandemic began. Hatswell will also take charge of the side on Saturday before Michael Flynn returns from his coronavirus isolation next week.

A lot can happen in 539 days, just ask the Cardiff Devils. Tonight they will mark their return to Ice Arena Wales (IAW) for the first time since March 2020 where they’ll go toe-to-toe with Germany’s Alder Mannheim in their opening game of the Champions Hockey League – Europe’s top continental club competition. The Devils, […]

Sean Fitzpatrick is confident the Scarlets can turn their fortunes around under new head coach Dwayne Peel but has warned it won’t be a quick fix. The west Walians endured a difficult time last season with former coach Glenn Delaney parting ways with the club after failing to get results, despite having a strong squad at his disposal. The appointment of a new look coaching team headed up by Dwayne Peel, with Irish defence coach Hugh Hogan, and highly rated head of performance Nigel Ashley-Jones the other new additions excites All Blacks legend Fitzpatrick – now on the region’s board – but he urges Scarlets fans to be patient.

By Paul Jones  Swansea manager Russell Martin says Morgan Whittaker has “done himself the world of good” as he claimed a second-half hat-trick to propel the Swans to a 4-1 victory over Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday. Daniel Williams put the Swans ahead early on before Rhys Shirley equalised for the visitors, but three goals in the space of 12 minutes from Whittaker fired Swansea into the last 32 of the Carabao Cup. “He’s (Whittaker) playing in a role that’s a bit different for him, as a lot of the guys are,” explained Martin.

Mick McCarthy is fearful of a transfer “bombshell” dropping on Cardiff City in the last stages of the transfer window as the club tries to cling on to Kieffer Moore. Wales striker Moore has been linked with moves elsewhere throughout the summer with Wolves reported to be still considering a £7m bid But with only six days remaining until the window closes, Bluebirds manager McCarthy has warned that any sale of his prize asset would be a major blow if it left the club with insufficient time to find a suitable replacement for a player who scored 24 goals last season.

Gareth Bale has answered questions over his future with Wales by the strength of his comeback at Real Madrid, says Robert Page. Bale will lead Wales into World Cup action, charged by the “positive impact” on his Real return, according to his national manager. The striker was the subject of fierce retirement rumours ahead of Euro 2020 this summer but said after Wales’ round-of-16 defeat to Denmark that he would never end his international career as long as he is playing football.

People were beginning to ask Meirion Evans if he’d retired from competitive driving. After all, he’s more often seen working as team manager in the family-run Melvyn Evans Motorsport operation nowadays, running cars for the likes of Matt Edwards and Osian Pryce in the British Rally Championship. Well, that’s sparked Evans back into action.

By Owen Morgan Aled Davies has spoken of his “absolute honour” at being named co-captain of the Great Britain athletics team alongside Hannah Cockroft at the Tokyo Paralympics. The Cardiff Athletics thrower won gold in Rio five years ago to add to his illustrious list of career titles. Having burst onto the international scene with gold and bronze medals at the 2012 London Paralympics, Davies will be defending his title in the men’s F63 shot put on Saturday 4 September.

Ben Pritchard is used to arriving ahead of schedule. He joined the British rowing squad just a year after becoming a para rower in 2017 and is now about to compete at his first Paralympics in Tokyo after first targeting Paris in 2024, as David Williams reports. The last time rowing took place at the Paralympics, Ben Pritchard was laying in a hospital bed, wondering how he was going to rebuild his life. The Welsh para rower suffered a life-changing cycling accident in 2016 at the very time the best disabled athletes on the planet had gathered to compete in Rio de Janeiro.

Kyle Naughton and Ryan Bennett are both in line for their Swansea City comebacks on Tuesday night after recovering from coronavirus. The defenders have missed the three recent league matches against Sheffield United, Stoke City and Bristol City after contracting Covid-19, even though they were both fit to play in the season opener at Blackburn. They were part of a large number of players in the Football League and Premier League who tested positive after the season had started – sparking a debate about just how many players at top clubs had declined to be vaccinated.

By Tom Prosser  Cardiff City can’t stop scoring headers so far this season and they will be hoping the ariel threat of Aden Flint, Sean Morrison and Kieffer Moore will help them to victory over Premier League Brighton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday. Incredibly, all eight of Cardiff’s league goals this season have been headers. This will not come as a surprise to the footballing community, as the Bluebirds top the most goals from set-piece’s leaderboard on an almost yearly basis.