By Tom Prosser Welsh judo star Natalie Powell can’t wait for the Olympics to get started and has some big aspirations going into the Tokyo games. This will be Powell’s second Olympic games after she previously got to the quarter-finals in 2016. “I’m looking to be on the podium, I want a medal,” said a determined Powell.   “I feel on my best day if everything goes to plan I’m fully capable of achieving that.”

By Paul Jones Welsh star Mica Moore has re-joined the British Bobsleigh team and has here eyes firmly set on making February’s Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Moore was a key performer at the last Olympics in South Korea three years ago as she recorded the country’s best ever finish in the women’s bobsleigh alongside pilot Mica McNeill. The pair placed eighth in PyeongChang but Moore then stepped away from the sport to begin an MSc in Sport Broadcasting and Media at Cardiff Met University.

Geraint Thomas admits his head was ‘in a bucket’ after he saw his Tour de France hopes left in tatters when losing 35 minutes in the Alps on Saturday. The 2018 champ looked poised to quit the world’s greatest cycle race to switch his focus to the Tokyo Olympics and rest the shoulder he fractured five days earlier.

Natalie Powell is off to her second Olympic Games after being formally named in a six-strong GB Judo team for Tokyo. The Beulah-born judoka will be ranked fifth in Japan after several impressive displays including winning gold at the 2020 Tel Aviv Grand Prix and silver at the 2019 Brasilia Grand Slam.

Commonwealth Games athlete Caryl Edwards celebrated her return to competitive running on Sunday with a win after a two-year break due to the birth of her child. Edwards, formerly Jones, had not competed since the Cardiff Race for Victory 5K in May, 2019, but on Sunday she won the women’s race in Round Two of the Welsh Athletics 5K series at Pembrey.

Welsh middle distance stars Piers Copeland and Jake Heyward both broke their 800m personal bests at the Stockholm Wanda Diamond League meeting on Sunday afternoon. Copeland was third behind Kenya’s Jonathan Kitilit who won in1:44.68 and fellow British athlete Archie Davies, while Heyward finished fifth. Cardiff-based Copeland crossed the line in 1:45.77 to lop almost half a second off his previous best time set at the Folksam Grand Prix in Gothenburg last August.

Late call-ups Josh Navidi and Adam Beard will make their Lions debuts on Wednesday when the tourists face the Sharks in Johannesburg. The Wales pair – who replaced Justin Tipuric and captain Alun Wyn Jones after injuries in the match against Japan – will make their bows for the British and Irish Lions in their second game on South African soil. Flanker Navidi of the Cardiff Blues and Ospreys lock Beard will join Tom Curry, of Sale Sharks and  England, in wearing the Lions shirt for the first time at Ellis Park, now called Emirates Airline Park (kick off 6pm BST).

Geraint Thomas is set to sit down with his Ineos Grenadiers team bosses on Monday’s much-needed rest day of the Tour de France to decide if he will continue. The 2018 Yellow Jersey winner started Sunday’s eighth stage 36 minutes behind race leader Tadej Pogacar after a tough first day in the Alps.

The new Cardiff Demons Women’s Super League South side had an outstanding start to life on Saturday when they stormed to an 88-6 win over Golden Ferns in Bristol. Their hosts, the female arm of the All Golds club, were on the back foot from the start after Wales captain Shaunni Davies scored in under 90 seconds. Ffion Lewis, who became Wales’ 100th dual code international rugby player last week, converted.

Growing up as a football-mad River Plate supporter in the Argentinian city of Santiago del Estero, Tomas Lezana dreamed of a career with a round ball rather than an oval one. But now the Pumas flanker is a Test rugby star, and after helping his country to a famous win over the All Blacks last autumn Lezana is now set to embark on a new chapter of his career in west Wales with the Scarlets. “The rugby in the region I come from is not strong at all,” said the 27-year-old. 

Only one athlete from Wales will wear a Great Britain vest out on the track at the Olympic Games in Tokyo – Jake Heyward. Tipped for greatness as a junior, his race to this point has been far from a straight run, though, as he tells Owen Morgan. Wales’ latest athletics Olympian was made in Cardiff but re-born in the USA. Jake Heyward is the only Welsh athlete in the Great Britain team for the Tokyo Olympics and the first Welshman to compete in the 1500m at the Games since Reg Thomas in 1932 in Los Angeles.

Josh Adams has made a strong early case for inclusion in the Lions Test team to face South Africa later this month. The Wales wing maintained his hot streak as he scored four tries in the British & Irish Lions’ 56-14 win over the Sigma Lions in Johannesburg. The top try scorer at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, he won the right to tour with Warren Gatland’s Lions side in South Africa by scoring tries in his last three games for Wales as he helped them secure another Six Nations title.

Leigh Halfpenny is waiting to hear how many more months he will have to spend on in the sidelines following the knee injury he suffered against Canada. The Wales full-back – whose career has been consistently interrupted by various injury setbacks over the years – is waiting for scan results after his latest blow. The Wales full-back made his 100th Test appearance in a 68-12 hammering of Canada, but what should have been a milestone match for the 32-year-old lasted just 30 seconds.

Injured Geraint Thomas saw any lingering hopes of challenging for the Tour de France ended as he finished 35 minutes down on stage eight. The 2018 champ’s brave effort to continue riding after dislocating his right shoulder on stage three finally took its toll as the race headed towards the Alps.

Fresh from his medal-winning exploits at last weekend’s British Championships, Patrick Swan will lead Swansea Harriers’ bid to build on their first round showing in the National Athletics League this weekend. The Harriers sit 12th in the Premiership table going into Saturday afternoon’s second round fixture, while fellow Welsh club Cardiff Athletics lie 15th in the 16-team division. A shot put silver medallist at last weekend’s British Championships in Manchester, Swan will also compete in the discus in the NAL Premier West Group fixture hosted by Yate and District AC, which also features Bristol and West AC and Yeovil Olympiads, along with Cardiff.

Leigh Halfpenny realised his boyhood dream 13 years ago, but today he will achieve something he never could have imagined in his wildest fantasies. Away from the spotlight of the Lions tour, before a restricted crowd at the Principality Stadium against low key opposition, Halfpenny will run out to play a Test match for the 100th time. He becomes the eighth Welsh player to reach three figures – alongside Alun Wyn Jones, Gethin Jenkins, Stephen Jones, George North, Martyn Williams, Gareth Thomas and Adam Jones.

The Nicky Grist Stages (Saturday 10 July) won’t be easy for Matt Edwards, as it will be his first gravel rally for 17 months and his maiden forestry event in his Yuasa Rally Team Volkswagen Polo GTI R5. Yet the double British Rally champion aims for a strong finish to maintain the great start he has made to his title defence.

Geraint Thomas admits he is still feeling the effects of his Tour de France crash as he prepares to face a tough weekend in the Alps. The 2018 winner was briefly distanced on the ascent to the summit finish to stage seven – at 249km the longest stage of the race – before recovering to cross the line along with his main rivals.

By Alex Bywater Welsh Fire’s men and women’s sides for The Hundred which starts later this month have been forced into some late changes due to Covid-19 withdrawals. The men’s team has been reinforced by two players from World Test Championship winners New Zealand in Jimmy Neesham and Glenn Phillips. Wicketkeeper-batsman Phillips will play the first four games for the men until big-hitting allrounder Kieron Pollard arrives from West Indies duty.

By Tom Prosser Wales U20s head coach Ioan Cunningham stressed the importance of his players learning from their mistakes after his side lost 36-19 to France. Wales have now lost back to back games and face the so far unbeaten England at the Arms Park on Wednesday. “Frustration again, if I’m honest, especially in that first half I felt we gifted France 24 points,” said Cunningham.