If sport is often about teamwork and the ability to think on your feet, then 2020 will probably go down as the year Welsh sport was tested as never before. Who would have imagined back on January 1 last year, we would be ending the year with online Zoom meetings and webinars as standard methods of communication between governing bodies and their members? Or that swimmers would be training on dry land? Or runners and cyclists would be competing against the clock in virtual races, rather than against each other?

Many of Wales’ top athletes will be heading for Manchester this weekend to compete at the Muller British Athletics Championships. With domestic meetings at a premium and some major events having fallen victim to COVID-19 restrictions, the two-day competition will be the highlight of the summer for many athletes.

A small group of Welsh athletes have put their Olympic and Paralympic dreams well and truly back on track following months of improvised training routines. A selection of elite throwers and sprinters took part in a controlled outdoor session at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s outdoor track on Tuesday as the sport takes the first tentative steps back to normality. Sprinters like Welsh 100m champion Sam Gordon and multiple Paralympic and world champion thrower Aled Davies, were amongst those taking part after the list of athletes and new coronavirus safety protocols were signed off by Sport Wales and the Welsh Government.

This year should have been the time Aled Davies secured his status as one of the world’s greatest Paralympians. Champion of the world in 2012 and 2016, he was on for the hat-trick of golden triumphs in Tokyo. He’s disappointed, but there are compensations as Graham Thomas reports. Aled Davies insists fatherhood and the joy of seeing his daughter learn to walk will always shine far brighter than any gold medal. The multiple medalist and world champion should be spending this summer preparing for more glory at the Paralympics in Tokyo.

Aled Davies can take his rugby to new heights according to his new boss at Saracens, Mark McCall. The Wales scrum-half has left the Ospreys to join the London club, even though they have just been relegated from the Gallagher Premiership. The move will mean a halt to Davies’s Wales career as he was won 20 caps – 40 less than the 60 required to be eligible for national selection if a player is based outside of the four Welsh regions.

Aled Davies has revealed he is preparing for the re-arranged Paralympic Games in his back garden. On the day the new dates of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were announced, multiple gold medallist Davies was already focussing on the re-set target. Because of the coronavirus crisis, this year’s Olympics – due to take place from  July 24, 2020 to August 9 this year – and the Paralympics, scheduled between 25 August 25 and September 6, have been postponed.

A teenage race-walker is organising his own para athletics meeting in Cardiff to give fellow disability athletes the opportunity to compete against each other. Daniel McKerlich, who competes in the T20 category for people with learning difficulties, has spotted a need for a competition in Wales exclusively for disabled athletes. The 19-year-old hopes his Para Athletics Event 2020 will attract some of Britain’s top para athletes as they prepare for the Tokyo Paralympics and go in search of qualifying standards.

Six Welsh para athletes have been named as part of British Athletics World Class Programme for 2020. Hollie Arnold, Olivia Breen, Aled Davies, Sabrina Fortune, Kyron Duke and Harri Jenkins all returned from last year’s World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai with medals. They are joined by 22 other athletes, including Hannah Cockroft and Jonnie Peacock, to be named as part of the Paralympic Podium group.

Wales scrum-half Aled Davies could be on his was from the Ospreys to join English giants Bath. The West Country club have expressed an interest in signing the 27-year-old who is out of contract at the end of the season and has a big decision to make over his future. Davies falls short of the 60 caps required to move outside of Wales and remain eligible for national selection, having only won 20 caps.

Aled Davies described his fourth consecutive World Championships shot put gold medal as his most difficult yet and immediately paid tribute to his fiancée and newborn daughter for inspiring him to victory. Davies had to fight every step of the way to retain his title as Luxembourg’s Tom Habscheid threw a personal best of 15.10m to lead the Welshman going into the fourth round at the World Para-Athletics Championships in Dubai. But the Cardiff AC athlete, who has been struggling for form this season and went into the competition ranked third, dug deep to produce the F63 competition-winning distance of 15.38m with his fourth attempt and never looked back.

Nowhere does Wales’ sporting claim to punch above its weight appear more justified than in Para Athletics. A total of seven Welsh athletes will be wearing Great Britain colours in Dubai when the World Para Athletics Championships starts in Dubai on Thursday. Owen Morgan spoke to one of them. Three reigning world champions boasting 15 global gold medals between them will lead a seven-strong contingent of Welsh athletes at this month’s World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai. Aled Davies, Hollie Arnold and Olivia Breen will be joined in the Great Britain team by WPA European Champions Sabrina Fortune and Harri Jenkins, along with Disability Sport Wales Para Academy athletes Kyron Duke and Jordan Howe.

As the months tick down to less than one year to go to next year’s Paralympics, Graham Thomas looks at the Welsh athletes who have already booked their places – and those striving to join them. Jim Roberts is rarely slow off the mark as one of the UK’s leading wheelchair rugby players and he has got there ahead of the rest when it comes to next year’s Paralympics. Welshpool-born Roberts became the first Welsh athlete to book his place for Tokyo next year as the countdown begins to the Games which are now just less than a year away.