Matt Edwards and co-driver Darren Garrod won a very closely fought Nicky Grist Stages in their Swift Group Ford Fiesta R5, after turning a two second deficit at halfway into a 58 second winning margin at the finish. Victory on the Quinton MC organised event sees them take the lead of the Jordan Road Surfacing BTRDA Rally Series. The Mayor of Builth Wells, Cllr. Paul McNiffe, flagged the large field away from outside Strand Hall, in the centre of Builth Wells, with two loops of the super-smooth Llyn Login (5.02 miles), Route 60 (5.10 miles), Halfway (5.11 miles) and Crychan (7.25 miles) stages awaiting competitors. Edwards was immediately in a titanic battle with Tom Cave/James Morgan (Spencer Sport Mitsubishi Mirage R5) as the lead swapped three times in six stages, with just a few seconds separating them as they traded fastest stage times. A big push on the final two stages gave the Llandudno driver what he thought was a 14 second victory, but that winning margin was substantially increased when a very rare co-driving mistake contravened event regulations and saw Cave disqualified from the results.

Dai Sport are in Devon and Cornwall with Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City this week. Here is the first part of our pre-season tour diary. Watch out for part two tomorrow. The Bluebirds management were delighted to see a decent spell of heavy rain in Cornwall and Devon this morning. Neil Warnock was concerned that pitches […]

Geraint Thomas admitted luck as well as know-how is playing a part as he maintained second place overall in the Tour de France. The Welsh rider managed to stay out of trouble on Sunday and will enjoy Monday’s first rest day in good spirits as he prepares for the race to enter the Alps. Richie Porte sat on the pavement grasping his right shoulder and grimacing in pain. A fan helped Chris Froome get going after he tumbled onto grass lining the road. And Romain Bardet recovered from three punctured tires.

Former world champion Dai Greene announced his return to the global stage with a third place finish at the inaugural Athletics World Cup in London on Sunday night. The 2011 400m hurdle world champion has endured an injury nightmare over the past five years, which would have seen many athletes quit the sport. But Greene says his love for the sport has kept him going and on Saturday evening he was back at the London Stadium where he finished fourth in the Olympic final in 2012. This time he went one better.

Wales pair Cory Allen and Lloyd Williams have both been named in the Wales sevens squad for this weekend’s Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco (20th-22nd July). Ospreys centre Allen – capped six times at 15-a-side level – and 23-cap Cardiff Blues scrum-half Williams will provide experience to a youthful squad captained by Adam Thomas. The duo recently helped Wales to the Exeter Sevens quarter-final as part of their World Cup preparations The World Cup Sevens is one last hurrah for captain Thomas, a Wales’ stalwart who will be competing in the Principality Premiership next season.

The Welsh athlete whose selection for the World Junior Championship in Finland came as a complete surprise, will leave the event with a bronze medal in his luggage. Before the championships, Swansea Harrier Joe Brier admitted he had forgotten the team was being announced when he got the call telling him he had been selected for the Great Britain 4x400m squad. But on Sunday, he helped his team-mates claim a bronze medal in the last event of the championship.

Truro City posed exactly the sort of test Neil Warnock wants for his young Bluebirds. The Cardiff City manager stood by the side of the away dug-out at Truro’s Treyew Road stadium and looked into the future. Warnock is not convinced the Professional Under-23 League will give his budding full professionals the testing conditions they […]

Cardiff City earned a second pre-season victory, beating Vanarama National League club Truro City in Cornwall. They followed a 3-0 win against Taffs Well on Friday with a 2-0 success at Truro. Bluebirds manager Neil Warnock was at the Treyew Road ground to watch senior players Anthony Pilkington, Lee Tomlin and goalkeeper Lee Camp in […]

Commonwealth Games long jumper Rebecca Chapman retained her Welsh title with a new championship record on Saturday. The Cardiff AAC athlete produced one of the individual performances of the day to break Ruth Howell’s 40-year-old Welsh Athletics Championships record by one centimetre. Chapman leapt out to 6.34m to clinch gold at Cardiff’s International Sports Campus. Sarah Abrams was second with 6.08m, while Grace Morgan, of Cardiff Archers was third with 5.41m.

Carys Morgan has been picked for the British equestrian vaulting team for the World Equestrian Games in September. Morgan, who based at the Talygarn Equestrian centre near Cardiff, is part of a six-strong squad that will represent Britain in Tyron, USA on September 11-13. The current Welsh champion, in a sport that combines riding skills with those of gymnastics and dance, will compete in her first World Equestrian Games (WEG), having previously taken part in the vaulting world championships in 2016.

Merthyr Town won the Supporters Direct Shield, beating City of Liverpool FC 4-2 at Penydarren Park. Ryan Prosser, Tom Meechan, Kerry Morgan and Ian Traylor scored for the Martyrs in a match between two fan-owned clubs. There was a tremendous atmosphere at stadium with the two sets of fans chanting and singing together. The fixture […]

Lee Tomlin is among the senior Cardiff City players likely to figure in Sunday’s pre-season fixture against Truro City in Cornwall. Manager Neil Warnock will attend the match, which is officially for the under-23 age group, and is mulling over his team with Tomlin, Omar Bogle, Anthony Pilkington, Stuart O’Keefe and goalkeeper Lee Camp all […]

Wales has got a new world champion to shout about. Take a bow Matthew Willis, from Wrexham, for bringing home the ITU World Junior Duathlon crown this month. The 18-year-old used his impressive speed over the final 2.5km run to take the title in Fyn, Denmark, to complete an incredible week. The previous weekend he won his first ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup Gold medal in Holland.

There were mixed fortunes for Welsh athletes competing at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Finland on Saturday. Swansea Harrier Joe Brier and his 4x400m relay team-mates qualified for Sunday’s final in fine style by winning their heat in a world lead time. However, it wasn’t to be for James Tomlinson who failed to qualify for the discus final.

Kyle Bartley is expected to complete a £4m move from Swansea City to Championship rivals West Brom this weekend. The Swans centre-back has been a peripheral figure at the Liberty Stadium in recent times due to injury and selection choices and has opted to leave. New manager Graham Potter has decided to cash in, although Federico Fernandez could also be allowed to move on, meaning the recruitment of a new central defender is likely.

Experienced Wales Rugby League Students player Dafydd Hellard has been forced to withdraw from from next week’s Home International tournament at Sardis Road in Pontypridd as he’s receiving chemotherapy for testicular cancer. The 33-year old mature student from Treharris, represented Wales Students in last year’s World Cup.

Welsh javelin thrower Bethan Rees completed a remarkable double on Friday as she won two national titles at events held 120 miles apart. At noon, Rees started competing in the javelin at the English Schools’ Championship at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. After clinching the title with a throw of 47 metres, Rees collected her medal and jumped straight into a car and headed south west.

Goalkeeper Lee Camp, the experienced former Rotherham United and Nottingham Forest goalkeeper, was given a chance to impress manager Neil Warnock against Taffs Well at Rhiw Ddar. Camp, 33, started for the Bluebirds in their opening Welsh League match – and his aim must be to earn a place in the 25-man Premier League squad […]

Cardiff AAC sprinter Sam Gordon will join fellow Welsh athletes Dai Green and Brett Morse in the Great Britain team for the inaugural Athletics World Cup in London this weekend. Gordon has been named in the final GB squad of 45, which already included his countrymen, who were automatic picks following their British Championships success in Birmingham two weeks ago.

Over 120 crews are gathering in Builth Wells for tomorrow’s (Saturday 14 July) Nicky Grist Stages, with the very best competitors from the Pirelli MSA Welsh Forest Rally Championship and Jordan Road Surfacing BTRDA Rally Series set to battling it out over 45 classic Welsh forestry stage miles on the Carmarthenshire and Powys border. The Quinton MC-organised event will be the first in Wales to run to the new split-seeding rules, whereby lower-powered cars will run first on the road and in reserve order – followed, after a short gap, by the more powerful four-wheel drive cars. With all four separate stages – Llyn Login, Route 60, Halfway and Crychan – (which are ran twice) in excellent condition, it should be a fantastic event for all. Tom Cave/James Morgan are seeded at number one in their Spencer Sport Mitsubishi Mirage R5, but it’s Paul Bird/Jack Morton who arrive at the event leading the BTRDA Rally Series, with the Focus WRC driver aiming to score his third win of the 2018 season – and a hat-trick of victories on the Nicky Grist Stages, having won in the same car in 2014 and ‘15. He’ll have a tough fight on his hands against the likes of Llandudno’s Matt Edwards/Darren Garrod, who have also won two BTRDA rounds in their Fiesta R5.