Alys Thomas delivered her fastest time of the year to place seventh in a rapid women’s 200m butterfly Olympic final in Tokyo. The Swim Wales and Swansea Aquatics competitor, making her Olympic debut aged 30, moved things on from her semi-final efforts in emphatic style, knocking more than a second off that time in a contest that saw China’s Zhang Yufei break the Games record to take gold. While the 2018 Commonwealth Games champion did not finish on the podium, there was still plenty of positives for Thomas to reflect on at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

By Alex Bywater  Jonny Bairstow signed off from Welsh Fire duty with a second match-winning knock and his team-mates are confident they can cope without the England star. Fire’s men’s captain Bairstow struck a superb 72 from just 39 balls to help his team to an 18-run win over Southern Brave which means the Welsh side now have back-to-back victories. But they will now have to do without Bairstow for the rest of The Hundred as he has now left to be part of England’s Test squad for their series with India.

By Paul Jones Cardiff City welcomed fans back for the first time in nearly 18 months yesterday but with a 4-0 defeat to Southampton and issues with the new digital ticketing system, the club will be hoping for improvements both on and off the pitch. With the new season fast approaching in just 10 days time, the Bluebirds will be looking for clarity from the Welsh Government about whether they can welcome back a full crowd or not for their opening Championship fixture at home to Barnsley. Due to the uncertain nature of how many fans will be allowed into the ground, Cardiff have been forced to put in place a digital ticket system where fans had to scan their mobile tickets on a device in order to gain access.

Under new coach Jarrod Skalde, the Cardiff Devils will take a new approach towards their goaltending for the forthcoming season. The Devils have added a second goaltender to their roster as Canadian Taran Kozun becomes the side’s latest new recruit. The 26-year-old will compete with another new import signing, American Mac Carruth, for the starting […]

By Paul Jones Welsh boxing star Lauren Price dominated her first bout at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday and said she was ‘massively’ inspired by her friend Lauren Williams’ performance in taekwondo.  Price who was born in Newport but grew up in Caerphilly is a hot favourite to win gold.  The southpaw was effective with a flurry of shots to Mongolian Myagmarjargal Munkhbat, getting a solid left cross to her opponent’s head in the first round. 

Welsh rower Tom Barras battled to a superb and unexpected Olympic silver medal in Tokyo in the quadruple sculls. Barras – who opted for Welsh qualification while at university in Cardiff – helped Great Britain finally win a medal on the rowing waters on day five of the Games. Harry Leask, Angus Groom, Barras and Jack Beaumont were unfancied in the difficult lane one but they overcame the odds to finish in the podium spots.

Matt Richards and Calum Jarvis have ended Welsh swimming’s long 109-year wait for Olympic gold medals with a magnificent victory in the 4x200m freestyle relay in Tokyo. The Welsh pair were part of a dominant Great Britain squad that struck gold, ahead of the Russian Olympic Committee in second and Australia, who took the bronze. The British quartet won in six minutes 58.58 seconds – an emphatic 3.23secs clear of the Russians and only fractionally outside the world record by three hundredths of a second.

Welsh swimmer Calum Jarvis is now within touching distance of fulfilling his dreams and winning a medal at the Tokyo Olympics. His Team GB relay team were the fastest in their Men’s 4x200m freestyle heats but this success was a long in time in the making, as Tom Prosser discovers. Calum Jarvis was part of the successful Team GB Men’s 4x200m freestyle team this morning alongside fellow Welsh swimmer Matt Richards. Their Team GB finished the heats with the fastest time of 7:03.25 and will now be aiming for a medal in the final which will take place in the early hours of tomorrow morning (Wednesday).

Wales has already contributed to Great Britain’s early medal collection at the Olympic Games in Tokyo when Lauren Williams won a silver medal in taekwondo on Monday. For Williams, an Olympic medal was the realisation of a dream that began in her local club in Caerphilly, Devils Martial Arts Club. Graham Thomas looks at the Olympic roots of the Welsh competitors in Japan. All Olympic dreams start with a more local idea and for Jake Hayward it was wanting to be the fastest kid at Llanishen Fach Primary School. Twelve years on and Jake still wants to cross the line first.

By Paul Jones British & Irish Lions Head Coach, Warren Gatland, will be keeping his fingers crossed that the in-form Dan Biggar will pass the return-to-play protocols so he can retain his place in the starting line-up for the second test against South Africa on Saturday. The Wales fly-half suffered a knock to the head in the first test last week and will now be assessed by an independent concussion consultant in the coming days in order to be given the green light to return to action. In other Welsh news, Taulupe Faletau is added to the bench and will win his fifth Lions Test cap should he enter the fray.

The proverb that good things come to those who wait could have been written for Alys Thomas. On Tuesday lunchtime at the age of 30 – once considered veteran territory in the world of top class swimming – the Swansea-based swimmer will make her Olympic debut. When she steps into the arena in Tokyo, a lot of memories will float through the mind of the current Commonwealth Games 200m butterfly champion.

Wales’ Lauren Williams added her name to Team GB’s Olympic taekwondo medal roll of honour in Tokyo on Monday but fell fractionally short in her attempt to strike gold. Twenty-four hours after team mate Bradly Sinden finished runner-up in the -68kg weight division, Welsh wonder Williams captured her own silver medal at -67kg. Like Sinden, too, the 22-year-old was within touching distance of becoming Olympic champion in a dramatic contest with Croatia’s number one seed, Matea Jelic.

By Tom Prosser “To be a Welshman working in Wales makes me the proudest man in the country,” those are the words of the Welsh Fire women’s head coach Mark O’Leary who is aiming for success in the new Hundred competition. O’Leary took the brave decision to leave Cardiff Met last year after a 20-year association with the university, he has since gone on to be the head coach of both Western Storm and the Welsh Fire women’s team.

As the song says, the road is long with many a winding turn that leads us to who knows where. Two former Ospreys teammates are at the peak of their respective sports this summer, but no-one could have predicted the road that took them there, as Owen Morgan reports. In May 2014 two promising rugby players from Swansea were amongst seven young hopefuls handed development contracts with the Ospreys. The two 18-year-olds were making their first steps towards their dreams of becoming professional sportsmen and representing their country at the highest international level in their sport. However, just a year later Adam Beard and Harrison Walsh – who had also played together for Swansea schoolboys – were to take very different paths towards their sporting dreams.

Swansea City have turned their attention to new managerial targets – including former Chelsea assistant Jody Morris – after reportedly being snubbed by QPR’s John Eustace. The Swans are in a mess of their own making after parting company with former head coach Steve Cooper last week and revisiting links with Eustace, who was on their shortlist when Cooper was appointed two years ago. But despite interviewing the 41-year-old, Eustace has informed Swansea he is staying in west London.

By Paul Jones Life really could begin at 55 for Welsh golfer Stephen Dodd who is eyeing a lucrative new career in the USA after winning his first senior major title. Cardiff-born Dodd – who lifted the Senior Open trophy at Sunningdale on Sunday – is considering cashing in on the highly profitable American seniors circuit after his breakthrough victory.  He had to hold off the challenge from several golfing greats to secure his maiden senior major title at the Senior Open presented by Rolex.

Jade Jones has admitted she failed to adapt to an arena without fans after her dreams of a third successive Olympic gold medal were shattered at the first hurdle in Tokyo. The Welsh fighter had travelled to the Japanese capital seeking an unprecedented third gold medal in the sport following triumphs at London 2012 and Rio in 2016. But Jones’ nine-year unbeaten Olympic record ended with a 16-12 defeat to Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorian in the last 16 of the -57kg weight division.

Joe Brier will become an Olympic athlete after he replaced Matthew Hudson-Smith in the 4 x 400m relay squad in Tokyo. Welsh athlete and Swansea Harrier Brier – who had gone with the Great Britain squad as a travelling reserve – will now get to compete at the Games after European 400m champion Huson-Smith has pulled out of the Olympics on medical grounds. Team GB confirmed the 26-year-old had withdrawn, although it is not Covid-19 related.

Warren Gatland has braced his British and Irish Lions for a backlash from South Africa after the tourists seized a 1-0 lead in the series by winning 22-17 at Cape Town Stadium. The Lions trailed 12-3 at half-time but improved dramatically, with Luke Cowan-Dickie beginning the resurgence by finishing a line-out maul, while the boot of Dan Biggar and Owen Farrell did the rest. South Africa’s coronavirus-disrupted build-up took its toll in the second half, but they only had themselves to blame for the indiscipline that allowed the Lions back in.

By Tom Prosser Welsh swimmer Kieran Bird will begin his Olympic dream in Tokyo this weekend and is looking to take inspiration from his footballing idols Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey. The football-mad swimmer warmed up for his men’s 400m freestyle heats on Saturday by re-running in his head highlights of Wales’ dynamic duo and their impact at Euro 2020.