Geraint Thomas lost time to his team-mate and Tour de France rival Egan Bernal despite still moving up one place overall on stage three. Wales’ defending champ is now seventh one spot behind the Colombian who proved the stronger on the punchy uphill finish as the race entered France for the first time.

Newtown Dragons and Maesteg were big winners during the annual Welsh Squash Awards in Cardiff. More than 120 people from throughout Wales attended the Angel Hotel and Dragons were named club of the year, while two Maesteg members won trophies. Michael Moseley is volunteer of the year, while Sally Davis received coach of the year. […]

Ken Owens insists Wales will be happy to arrive at the World Cup in Japan with a sonic boom of expectation, rather than flying in under the radar. In previous tournaments – including that of 2011 when Warren Gatland’s squad reached the semi-final and Owens was the young pup – hope has always been well above any sense of presumption. But the Wales and Scarlets hooker says he will have to be part of the best team in the world to lift the trophy in October, and that the ambitions set within the camp have not been altered by their current run of 14 consecutive victories which has taken them to No 2 in the world rankings.

Sarah Jones has been included in the GB squad that has headed to Japan as part of their preparations for next year’s Olympic Games. The Cardiff-born midfielder was a regular member of the squad for the recent Pro League matches where she took her capitally to 21.

England legend Pamela Cookey believes Wales are using their absence from this month’s World Cup as a spur towards recovery. Cookey was in Cardiff at the weekend, where Wales followed up their impressive 52-47 win over Malawi with another notable scalp as they beat Trinidad and Tobago, 72-74, at the Viola Arena. Both beaten opponents are preparing for the World Cup in Liverpool, which begins on Friday – a tournament Wales failed to qualify for.

Rhys Enoch might have missed out on qualifying for The Open, but he was bang on target at the Slovakia Challenge as he celebrated his maiden European Challenge Tour title at the weekend. The Welsh golfer fired a four-under-par final round at the Penati Golf Resort to finish at 18-under-par across the four rounds to win by one stroke from Australia’s Josh Geary in Senica.

The South Wales Warriors claimed their second successive divisional title after surviving their toughest examination of the season by a Torbay Trojans team containing a Welsh international athlete. The Warriors had taken the advantage in the British American Football Association Division Two South West title race with a convincing 48-14 victory over Torbay a fortnight ago. But the side which travelled to Llanharan, including Welsh hammer thrower Jonathan Edwards, were determined to restore some pride and not allow the Warriors to take the title without a fight.  All the scoring was completed in the first half and the Warriors defence all but secured the victory when they denied the Trojans from scoring when they were within four yards of the home end zone with just over two minutes to play. 

Matt Richards completed the medal hat-trick at the European Junior Championships as he struck 200m Freestyle silver on the final night in Kazan. The 16-year-old sensation smashed his person al best again as he added to his 100m Freestyle gold and bronze in the 4x10o Freestyle Relay in Russia.

Stephen Dixon, Cardiff Devils’ players player of the season in 2018-19, has played his part in recruitment for the new season. Canadian Dixon is back for a second season in Cardiff and recommended Finnish forward Masi Marjamaki to head coach Andrew Lord. Marjamaki is one of three new signings for Devils, along with Mike McNamee […]

Former BBC News journalist Andrew McFarlane has written an alternative and personal view of a wonderful Welsh athletics event – the Welsh Castles Relay. He writes for the ‘RUNNING RUBBISH’ website which celebrates athletic mediocrity in all its mis-shapen forms. “A place for solidarity, to share the woe of middling club runners,” says McFarlane. “We’re […]

Geraint Thomas saw his hopes of defending his Tour de France crown boosted even if his team again just failed to break their time trial duck. The Cardiff-born rider was catapulted into the top 10 – moving eighth overall – after Team INEOS finished second. Thomas is just 30 seconds off the lead still held by Holland’s Mike Teunissen whose Team Jumbo-Visma outfit were the only team to get the better of Team INEOS.

George North has revealed the Wales squad were told “a few porkies” about their World Cup build-up this summer. The Ospreys wing – who is preparing for his third tournament at the age of 27 – was expecting a gentle introduction into the training schedule meant to bring the players to a peak for Japan in September. Instead, North has revealed the squad have had a heavy workload at their Vale of Glamorgan base and the fitness efforts will soon be ramped up again when they head for a training camp in Switzerland.

Britain’s new 20K race walk champion Heather Lewis has a big decision to make. The Pembrokeshire athlete won the British Grand Prix of Race Walking at Leeds last weekend, which also doubled up as the trials for the World Athletics Championships in Doha later this year. Although Lewis’ winning time was a new personal best, it was outside the qualifying time for the championships which begin in September.

Adam Barton, Wrexham’s newest signing who is with the squad on their pre-season trip to Portugal, is ready to make sweet music with the Dragons. Central midfield player Barton has a quality musical background, a drummer who can also play bass guitar. The former Preston North End, Portsmouth, Coventry City, Partick Thistle, Dundee United, Connah’s […]

Josh Griffiths left it to the last minute to take the inaugural Healthspan Porthcawl 10K title from Welsh cross-country champion James Hunt who motored to a lifetime best. Swansea ace Griffiths, the Team Wales Commonwealth Games and Team GB World Championships marathoner, found himself trailing at the half-way mark in the spectacular new event on the seafront at one of Wales’s most popular resorts. But he had the strength to hit back and post another notable victory.

Non Stanford felt like she was riding a clown bike at one point, but the Welsh triathlete showed she means business with victory in Hamburg. The 30-year-old’s triumph to end a win drought of over two years came at the perfect time as the countdown to next year’s Olympics hits a crucial phase. Next month sees a test event in Tokyo when Stanford hopes she can prove she will be able to cope with the testing conditions in the Japanese capital in 2020.

Teenage Welsh swim sensation Matt Richards will be heading home from the European Junior Championships in Kazan, Russia, with a gold medal around his neck. The 16-year-old Droitwich-based Richards followed up his bronze medal with the British 4 x 100m freestyle relay team with a brilliant triumph in the 100m freestyle in a personal best time – confirming his status as one of the rising stars of British swimming. Having won his heat in 49.91 sec – one of only three swimmers in the nine heats to crack the 50 sec barrier – he went even quicker in the semi-finals, recording the fastest time of 49.50 sec. But he saved his best for last as he dominated the final to win in 48.88 sec.

Geraint Thomas insisted he felt “fine” after a late crash on the opening stage of the Tour de France as Mike Teunissen took a surprise victory in Brussels. Wales’ defending champion was among those caught in a big crash with around two kilometres of the 194.5km opening stage remaining, but as the nation held a collective breath, Thomas quickly remounted his bike to finish the stage. Thomas fell into a barrier as the peloton ground to a halt but did not appear to suffer any injury, while his Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal stayed upright.

Nia Jones has revealed the pain of heavy defeat sparked Wales to their comeback victory over Malawi on Saturday. The Wales vice-captain led her team to a gutsy 52-47 win at the Viola Arena in Cardiff just 24 hours after back-to-back defeats to South Africa. The first of those was a humiliating 84-32 reverse on Thursday night and Jones admitted: “That was a really difficult night.

Evan Hoyt and Eden Silva joined an elite band of British tennis players when they knocked out the mixed doubles number 16 seeds on Saturday afternoon. In the bad old days, before the success of the likes of Sir Andy Murray, Tim Henman and Johanna Konta, the old joke used to go: “What do you call a Brit in the second round of Wimbledon?”