The Olympic Games has gone – for this year, at least – and athletes all over the world are having to adjust to a new reality. The target they had set themselves, often years ago, has shifted. But as Natasha Cockram tells Owen Morgan, the only thing to do is stay positive, count your blessings, and ring a new date in next year’s diary. Natasha Cockram gave up her day job earlier this year to concentrate on an Olympic dream and to earn a living from being a professional athlete. Now, the Welsh marathon runner is having to change course and the route to the finishing line is very uncertain.

As the great sporting hibernation goes on, Dai Sport is again forced to raid its horded supplies from the past. This time, Tom Jenkins looks at the Wales national football team who just happen to celebrate their 144th birthday this week. One man who spans a fair chunk of that history is former Wales midfielder and manager Brian Flynn. Brian Flynn was almost an international record-breaker before scoring arguably the greatest-ever Wales goal on his first full appearance. On the 144th anniversary of Wales’ first fixture – a 4-0 defeat to Scotland in Glasgow on March 25, 1876 – Flynn’s finish against the ‘Tartan Army’ in the 1975 British Home Championship stands tall in the Welsh pantheon of great goals.

The Dragons and Scarlets will have to wait to discover if and when they can play their European Challenge Cup quarter-finals after EPCR decided to postpone this season’s knock-out matches. In a statement from CEO Vincent Gaillard on Tuesday, EPCR said they had taken the step because of an unprecedented situation with the threat to public health and safety posed by COVID-19. “European club rugby tournaments have been suspended since 16 March and with the health of all stakeholders of primary importance, the decision has been taken to postpone the semi-finals and Finals Weekend of the 2019/20 season in addition to the quarter-finals originally scheduled for April 3-5,” said Gaillard.

The first round proper of The DAIsolate Cup – Ammanford AFC’s FIFA tournament – threw up some intriguing ties and introduced a promising comedy double act from Lee Trundle and Dylan Ebenezer. With all football suspended for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus crisis, the Welsh League One outfit decided to invite clubs from all over Wales to compete in a FIFA video game tournament. A magnificent total of 128 entries – represented by individuals from their clubs – threw their names into the hat for the competition which will raise charity cash as well as the morale of football fans throughout the country.

Jade Jones says she has been left devastated after seeing her bid for a historic hat-trick of Olympic taekwondo gold medals put on hold. The Flint fighter admits postponing Tokyo 2020 until 2021 was the right course of action due to the coronavirus crisis. But she fears for the psychological burden it will put on athletes who have to get over the delay and try to refocus their efforts for 2021.

It will come as no surprise to hear that the suspension of all motorsport in the UK has been extended until at least 30 June. Motorsport UK, the governing body, has acted quickly in light of recent developments in the COVID-19 crisis in giving clear guidance to event organisers, venues, competitors, officials and volunteer marshals of the role that motorsport must play in supporting the broader UK public health agenda. And that is to stay at home. The new suspension period means that the 2020 Pirelli Motorsport UK Welsh Stage Rally Championship might not start until the Nicky Grist Stages on 11 July, with the Plains Rally (16 May) and Red Kite Stages Rally (14 June) being forced to postpone.

Elliot Slade is a Welsh runner, who also happens to make horror movies. It was proving a perfect combination until the real global horror of the coronavirus pandemic threw his plans into confusion. Owen Morgan spoke to him just as he was attempting to return to Europe from San Francisco – a home-coming he hopes will prove temporary. The past few years of Elliot Slade’s life read like a film script, which is entirely appropriate for a man who has set his sights on being a successful director.

WRU chairman Gareth Davies has praised Martyn Phillips for agreeing to do a U-turn on his departure as chief executive this summer to help steer the union through the coronavirus crisis. Phillips has agreed to extend his stay in his role beyond five years and will remain at the helm “for the foreseeable future”. “In these testing times it’s a hugely positive development for us to have mutually agreed for him to stay on for the foreseeable future,” said Davies.

With sport presently on pause, and the future uncertain, Dai Sport is delving occasionally into the past. This time, Harri Morgan has wound the clock back 28 years to 1992, the year in which he turned five years old. The venue was Stradey Park and the game was Llanelli’s famous 13-9 victory over Australia, a team good enough to have won the World Cup just a year previously. Rather than spending another afternoon lamenting the lack of live sport beaming it’s way out of my telly box in stunning high definition, I have opened a door to the sporting archive, or YoTube as it is more commonly known. The intention was to find an iconic sporting event, of which I knew the outcome and perhaps bits and pieces of the action, but not the intricacies or narrative that are often hold the true beauty of such occasions.

Welsh table tennis prodigy Anna Hursey has been unable to return to her Chinese training base because of the coronavirus pandemic. The teenager – who rose to prominence in 2018 when she competed at the Commonwealth Games at the age of just 11 – moved to China last year to train full-time alongside top-quality players. Carmarthen-born Hursey’s mother Phoebe is Chinese and the 13-year-old speaks Mandarin.

The British Medical Journal has re-issued guidance from recent research on the major benefits of physical activity. Advice published this week states: “Regular physical activity reduces the risk of a person contracting a communicable diseases (such as viral and bacterial infections) by enhancing the person’s immune system’s ability to regulate itself. “Therefore, we should maintain […]

The prospect of Welsh athletes – or anyone else for that matter – showing up at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer appears to be disappearing. The International Olympic Committee needs to postpone the Games and Paralympics now according to the competitor-led movement Global Athlete. The organisation, fronted by former British cyclist Callum Skinner, believes the Games should be rescheduled until the Covid-19 pandemic is under control.

Missing rugby, already? Don’t worry. If there’s nothing happening on the pitches right now, there’s still plenty to look back on – like 42 years ago this week when Wales won the Grand Slam by beating France 16-7 in Cardiff. Phil Bennett scored two tries, Gareth Edwards called the shots, and then both walked off into the sunset to play for their country no more. It was Saturday, 18 March, 1978 and an afternoon tinged with sadness. Yes, Wales made it three Grand Slams in eight years, but it was also the last time Welsh rugby fans saw Edwards and Bennett playing for their country.

Welsh footballers and fans left twiddling their thumbs have been offered a chance to get competitive again – and raise funds for local food banks and NHS staff. Ammanford AFC have come up with a brilliant idea for the football-starved during the coronavirus crisis, with an on-line tournament called The DAIsolate Cup.  #TheDAIsolateCup. The Welsh League Division One outfit has set up the FIFA video game tournament, which they hope will involve 128 football clubs from all levels the length and breadth of Wales.

You’ve got to feel for clubs like Pontypool and London Welsh and after the decisions by their respective unions to shut down all rugby for this month. Both are on the verge of promotion and the worry for them now is they could be denied a step-up for whenever the 2020/21 season starts, if the current campaign is deemed null and void. In the case of the Exiles, they are two wins away from making it three successive promotions in their long fight to climb back up the English league system.

The handbrake has been firmly pulled on all motorsport activities in the UK until the beginning of May, after Motorsport UK suspended all organising permits and Certificates of Exemption. Quickly following other sports responding to the coronavirus outbreak, evaporating hopes that circuit racing and rallying might be able to continue behind closed doors where extinguished when the Government introduced directives asking people to avoid all non-essential social contact and non-essential travel, as well as withdrawing the provision of emergency services to mass gatherings. This means that the opening three rounds of the JD Tyres Welsh Tarmacadam Rally Championship (Tour of Caerwent, 29 March, Tour of Epynt, 11 April and Altratech SMC Stages, 19 April), the next two rounds of the Pirelli Motorsport UK Welsh Stage Rally Championship (Rally North Wales, 28 March and Rallynuts Stages Rally, 18 April) and the next two rounds of the Welsh Road Rally Championship (Rally Llyn, 14/15 March and Night Owl, 25/26 April) have all been postponed.

Wales Golf has started postponing events because of the COVID-19 outbreak, with the situation under constant review. The first two events of the Ping Welsh Junior Tour, due to be held in Mold and Milford Haven in the middle of April, have been postponed. An update on replacement dates will be issued as soon as possible.

Peter Whittingham – An apology Yesterday, I wrote a story on this website in tribute to the former Cardiff City player Peter Whittingham. I had been told – from a very reliable source connected to Peter – that he had tragically passed away at the age of 35. It has since been confirmed to me that Peter is not dead, but continues to fight for his life in hospital. It is a battle I’m sure that every Cardiff City fan is praying he will win.

Cardiff Met’s Eliot Evans has called for patience as Welsh club and international football goes into cold storage. The university Welsh Premier side’s striker – and head of coaching at the Met’s academy – was due to win his third cap at Wales C level against England on March 24. But that fixture, along with every other club and international game at every level,  has been suspended as the coronavirus pandemic sends global sport into shutdown mode.

Welsh boxing Olympic hopeful Lauren Price has thanked her fans for their support after the abandonment of her qualification route. The Welsh world, European and Commonwealth champion – who would arguably have been Wales’ best chance of a gold medal in Tokyo later this year – was meant to be competing on Tuesday at the Copper Box Arena in London. But the event, which had already begun, was suspended after Monday night’s session because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Road to Tokyo tournament began on Saturday but was moved behind closed doors on Sunday.