Jeremiah Azu could be appearing in a new track league which will see top athletes compete against each other at four elite meetings every year from 2025. The sprinter – who recently became the first Welsh athlete to run 100m under 10 seconds – will be a target for US athletics great Michael Johnson, who is fronting the organisation that wants to bring in the new version of the sport.
Jacob Draper has spoken of his pride after being one of four Welsh players selected across the two Great Britain squads for this summer’s Olympic Games. Draper and Rupert Shipperley will head towards a second successive Games after being part of the GB men’s squad that finished sixth in Tokyo four years ago.
Welsh Para table tennis stars Rob Davies, Paul Karabardak, Josh Stacey and Grace Williams have been included in a squad of 13 Great Britain athletes for this week’s ITTF Czech Para Open in Ostrava (June 20-22). It will be the final tournament for the British Para Table Tennis team before the Paralympic Games later this summer.
Hannah Mills is part of a group of leading athletes who have warned that extreme heat will make it “impossible” to hold the Olympics during the summer months amid fears of dangerous conditions at this year’s Paris Games. Mills – Wales’ double Olympic champion – has joined with other athletes from across a range of sport as well as climate scientists to issue their warning.
Ben Pritchard believes he can build on his first international gold medal to become a Paralympic champion this summer. The Welsh star won the PR1 Men’s Single Sculls at the Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland, just two months before the Paralympic Games in Paris.
Will Smeed smashed 86 off 48 balls to lead Somerset to a 108-run Vitality Blast South Group victory over Glamorgan at the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton. The opener blitzed nine fours and five sixes to dominate the home side’s innings of 193 for 8 after losing the toss. Craig Overton contributed 42, while Dan Douthwaite claimed three wickets in an over to finish with 4 for 37 from four.
Former Walker Cup player Neil Roderick claimed his first Welsh Men’s Seniors Championship, forty years after claiming his first Welsh title.
Teenager Ruby Evans says it will be a dream fulfilled when she competes for Great Britain at this summer’s Olympic Games. The 17-year-old from Cardiff is set to become the first Welsh gymnast to compete at the Olympics since 1996 after she was selected for the GB squad.
With British Triathlon once again bringing the World Triathlon Para Series to Swansea in 2024, Welsh PTVI paratriathlete Rhys Jones has opened up about his home nation pride. “It was huge. It’s the kind of things dreams are made of really,” Jones said as he looks back on wearing the Welsh trisuit and finishing fourth at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. “Last season the aim was to take three minutes off my overall time and the aim is that again. So we’re on track, with the various things that are in place, to make that happen.
Welsh tennis prodigy Mimi Xu said she is “incredibly proud and humbled” after she broke into the top 10 world junior ITF tennis rankings. The 16-year-old, who was born in Swansea, has taken the junior competitions by storm, and is now in line to compete in this year’s qualifying events at Wimbledon this July in both Junior and Women’s events.
Wales Netball have paid tribute following the death of former team manager Donna Crossman. Their statement said she had died “following a tragic accident on Sunday evening.”
Three-time Paralympic boccia champion David Smith will look to add to his medal collection in Paris after being named in a five-strong Great Britain and Northern Ireland squad alongside reigning world champion Claire Taggart. Smith – sporting a distinctive red and blue mohawk – became the sport’s most successful British player after retaining his individual BC1 title at the rescheduled Tokyo Games three years ago.
Golfers have rekindled one of the oldest cross border club matches in Wales to maintain a tradition started more than 100 years ago. Links between London Welsh Golfing Society and Carmarthen began in 1907, with the English-based club carrying on the tradition this year while on their annual summer tour to Wales.
Clara Evans helped Britain’s women strike half marathon gold at the European Championships – then thanked the familiar faces she saw on the roads of Rome.
Rosie Eccles knows more than most about resilience and hopes both she and kindred spirit Andy Murray can crown their journeys back from the brink with Olympic medals at Roland Garros. The Welsh boxer, 27, will represent Team GB in the welterweight division (-66kg) at Paris 2024 having battled back from a Covid-inflicted attack on her nervous system which left her unable to dress herself. She has since caught Covid on three further occasions but insists she is ready to take on the world in the ring having booked her place with bronze at last year’s European Games.
Joel Makin was unable to get past world number one Ali Farag and claim a place in the final of the British Open in Birmingham. Welsh star Makin – who had earned one of the best wins of his career when he dumped out world champion Diego Elias in the quarter-final – ran into a dominant Farag who was at the top of his form. Makin – who is based in Birmingham – went down 11-3, 11-9, 11-7 to see his dream of becoming the first Welshman to lift the title since David Evans 24 years ago, disappear.
If Jeremiah Azu makes the Olympic 100m final this summer, then he will find inner calm to settle any nerves. On the track, Azu is Wales’ leading all-time sprinter, the first Welsh athlete to run 100m in under 10 seconds and an athlete now bidding to shake off a hamstring injury that forced him out of the current European Championships so he can make the Great Britain squad for Paris.
Joel Makin is convinced he has a chance to become British Open squash champion after taking one of the biggest scalps of his career. The Welsh star – world ranked No.9 – stunned world champion Diego Elias with a brilliant quarter-final victory in Birmingham.
Jeremiah Azu has been forced to pull out of the European Championships in Rome due to injury.
Welsh Paralympic hopefuls James Ledger and Funmi Oduwaiye are two of the athletes who star in a new feature-length documentary, released on June 13. The pair – who are both gearing up for the Paralympic Games in Paris in August – fall under the spotlight in “Transatlantic Storytelling”.