Gwennan Harries was hoping for trips to Baku and Rome this summer, like so many others looking forward to the Euro 2020 finals. Instead, she will have to settle for recent memories being jogged by S4C this weekend – a night when the whistle blew and the touchline dancing began, as she tells Graham Thomas. It may take her another year, but Gwennan Harries is still looking forward to jigging on the touchline when Wales take their place at Euro 2020. In fact, the former Wales, Everton, Cardiff City and Bristol Academy striker believes there could be even more reason to dance with delight when the delayed finals eventually get going in 12 months’ time.

The South Wales Warriors’ return to the second tier of British American Football must wait a year after this season’s schedule was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Warriors, the only Welsh side in the British American Football Association (BAFA) National League, had secured promotion with victory in the Division Two (South) Britbowl in London at the end of August but this week learned no league play will take place this year. Fixtures had been due to start in April but, on the same day in March that the Football League and English football’s Premier League, as well as all football in Wales, was suspended BAFA announced it was putting all American Football activity including training sessions on hold due to coronavirus.

The suspension of all athletics activity in Wales has been extended until June 19, but the sport’s governing body is doing all it can to keep athletes active and engaged. The decision to extend has been taken in line with the latest Welsh Government advice and to offer clarity to athletes. In addition, the current suspension of athletics competition in Wales until the end of June remains in place.

Women’s football in Wales is set for a complete overhaul which will be in place in time for the start of the 2021/22 season. The restructure has been announced by the Football Association of Wales following an extensive review and consultation process involving key stakeholders within the game. A new pyramid league structure will be defined in order to provide competitive women’s football appropriate to playing standards, economic means, geographical location, facilities and club structure.

Wayne Pivac has admitted his disappointment after Wales’ summer tour to New Zealand and Japan was officially called off. The decision was taken by World Rugby after talks with host Unions in the face of insurmountable problems caused by measures taken to counter the coronavirus pandemic. The Welsh Rugby Union have said they will examine ways to get the tour re-scheduled at a future date, but that remains only a possibility.

Lockdown may have temporarily put a spanner in the works of the boxer known as “The Machine”, but Liam Williams knows exactly what he wants when the action starts again. The man from Clydach Vale has got his sights firmly on the WBO middleweight title and he’s making sure that current champion Demetrius Andrade knows he’s gearing up for a showdown. Williams has motored up the world rankings by winning all of his last six fights by stoppage.

The Cardiff 10K is the latest Welsh sporting event to fall victim of the coronavirus restrictions. Cardiff Metropolitan University Cardiff 10K & 2K Family Run race organisers Kidney Wales said they had been forced to take the “extremely difficult decision” to cancel the event which was due to take place on Sunday, September 6. The health of runners, spectators, volunteers, event staff and the wider population was main priority in coming to the decision. 

Former Cardiff City midfielder Don Cowie has done his bit for NHS workers in Scotland after challenging his Ross County teammates to a keepie-uppie competition. County co-manager Steven Ferguson and sporting director Scott Boyd posted videos of their own skills – and Cowie took up the challenge. He posted his own video and then tweeted: “I now challenge all my team-mates.

A year ago many thought Welsh regional rugby side the Ospreys were dead and buried as talks of a merger with the Scarlets dominated the headlines. Now, the most successful of the four Welsh professional teams over the past 17 years can contemplate a more positive future following what they describe as a “multi-year, multi-million-pound […]

Head coach Brad Mooar and eight players – including Wales centre Hadleigh Parkes – are to leave the Scarlets before training resumes. Forwards coach Ioan Cunningham will also not return to Parc y Scarlets with the club moving forward with coaches and players for the 2020-21 season after they return from the enforced break due to the coronavirus pandemic. The region have confirmed that Parkes is ending his six-season stint in Llanelli and he is set to also bring down the curtain on his Wales career by joining Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan.

Olympic hopefuls Jacob Draper and Rupert Shipperley came out on top at the recent Hockey Wales awards when they were named as joint winners of the Male Player of the Year title. Wales skipper Shipperley joined Draper in the Great Britain team this year and made his debut in February. Since then he has joined the Hampstead & Westminster star has become a full-time member of the squad. He scored on his debut against Australia and played in all four FIH Hockey Pro League games against the Kookaburras and New Zealand. He impressed enough to earn a permanent call-up to the squad for the next six months.

Fighting in front of row upon row of empty seats will hold no fears for Pontypool-based boxer Kieran Gething. As professional sport prepares for the prospect of returning to empty arenas in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, many stars have voiced reservations about competing behind closed doors. But Welsh area super-lightweight champion Gething says he will be physically and mentally ready to return to the ring whatever the circumstances.

Cardiff City and Swansea City are waiting to hear how the plan for football to return in England can be made to work in Wales. Both Welsh clubs are seeking advice over whether the different regulations either side of the border might affect their ability to resume squad training. Premier League and Championship clubs are hoping to resume training sessions within days after rules and advice governing the workplace were re-shaped by the UK government.

Former Wales wing Tom James has announced his retirement from rugby at the age of 33. Currently with the Scarlets, James made his name with the Cardiff Blues and went on to earn 12 international caps, in a 14-season career during which he scored 86 tries in 234 appearances for Cardiff RFC, the Blues, Exeter Chiefs, the Scarlets and Wales. James joined the Scarlets at the start of the current season, but made just four regional appearances before the current shutdown.

Geraint Thomas has headed to his Monaco base from his home in Wales as he gears up for a crack at regaining the Tour de France crown later this year. The Cardiff-born rider flew out on Monday to ramp up his training for Le Tour which has been rescheduled to start in Nice on August 29. On Monday, Thomas posted a photo on his social media accounts of himself on a plane, wearing a face mask, with the caption: “Boarded and ready to go.”

By David Roberts Former RGC 1404 back row man Sean Lonsdale has pledged his long-term future to Gallagher Premiership leaders Exeter Chiefs. The 22-year-old Welsh-qualified player has made 31 appearances for the Chiefs since joining from the north Wales side in 2018. He is part of a squad that already boasts Welsh internationals in Tomas […]

Welsh golf courses will remain closed this week – although those in England are about to re-open. The divergence in regulations is the first example of how the rules around sport are about to differ on either side of the border. Following the announcement on Sunday by UK prime minister Boris Johnson that some sports are going to be available to participate in from Wednesday in England, Wales Golf – the governing body for the sport in Wales – have put their name to a joint statement by the UK golf bodies.

Wales Rugby League have proposed to England that they face each other in a double header later in the year to celebrate and honour the NHS and key workers in each country. In addition, WRL CEO Gareth Kear has confirmed that if we are out of lockdown by the autumn and it’s safe to travel and play rugby, then Wales will take on Jamaica in a double header in Cardiff, women and men, for the Billy Boston Cup on the weekend of October 17/18.

Welsh rowers are being encouraged to stick their oars into a new global competition over the next few days. The One Minute Challenge is a joint competition for indoor rowers that began on Friday 8 May and runs to 11 May. It is being contested by athletes of all shapes, sizes and abilities from Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Giorgio Chinaglia played for Italy at the World Cup and alongside Pele and Franz Beckenbauer at the New York Cosmos – not bad for a Cardiff schoolboy shown the door by Swansea Town. Twm Owen traces his steps from Cardiff to socialising with Sinatra and allegations of involvement with the Mafia “Giorgio Chinaglia is Italian, speaks English with a Welsh accent and scores a lot of goals, and those are about the only positive things I can think to say about him.” The tale of the Cardiff schoolboy who would play for Italy at the World Cup and star in New York alongside Pele may be one of the most intriguing football stories from Wales but Clive Toye’s blunt summation of Giorgio Chinaglia as a footballer and a man only raises further questions.