Wales has a new European swimming champion in the shape of Medi Harris. The Commonwealth Games bronze medalist struck gold at the European Short Course Championships in Romania on Thursday night and there could be more silverware for Great Britain, and Welsh swimmers, this weekend.

Welsh athletes dismayed at the turmoil over the 2026 Commonwealth Games have been offered a potential lifeline – from London. Conservative Mayor of London candidate Susan Hall has thrown her support behind London hosting the next edition of the Games after the Gold Coast in Australia dropped the only bid for the event in four years’ time.

Clara Evans has become Wales’ fastest female marathon runner of all time after smashing the Welsh record for the distance. The Wales Commonwealth Games star set a new Welsh record of two hours, 25 minutes and four seconds at the Valencia Marathon on Sunday.

Chris Simmons and Lucie Gutteridge have secured the 2023 JD Tyres Welsh Tarmacadam Championship driver and co-driver titles respectively, after another close and thrilling year-long battle came to an end on the two-day Glyn Memorial Stages Rally. The tenth and final round of the series took place at the Anglesey Racing Circuit, which was the third time that crews had visited the Ty Croes venue this year.

Jason Pritchard’s quest to win the Roger Albert Clark Rally continues after he finished third on Britain’s longest event. Having led the bi-annual, five day, 350 stage mile event before and having finished second in 2019, the RAC is the one rally that the triple British Historic and Protyre Asphalt rally champion wants to win more than most.

Anna Hursey has set her sights on a place in the Great Britain team for the Paris Olympics after breaking into the world’s top 100 women players. The latest World Table Tennis (WTT) rankings show Hursey placed at No.93, making the 17-year-old from Cardiff Britain’s highest-ranked player.

Gerwyn Price will begin his attempt to reclaim the World Darts Championship crown by taking on Connor Scutt or Krzysztof Kciuk. The Iceman – who won the world title in 2021 – will be looking for an upturn in form at the Alexandra Palace tournament next month after recently losing to Gary Anderson in the last 16 of the Grand Slam of Darts.

Wales co-captain Rupert Shipperley intends to make an impact on and off the field as Great Britain’s new vice-captain. The 31-year-old is one of two Welsh players named in the GB squad, alongside Jacob Draper.

Ruby Evans and Joe Cemlyn-Jones led the way with medals for Wales in a successful foray at the Northern European Championships. Team medals for the men’s and women’s teams along with a host of individual medals – it was another hugely successful Northern European Gymnastics Championships.

When it comes to sailing, not everyone is in the same boat. The traditional image of the sport was of dinghies or yachts, coastal towns, regattas, and members-only clubhouses with crests on the wall outside and dusty trophy cabinets within.

Former two-time champion Mark Williams was far from satisfied with his own performance but still did enough to see off Fan Zhengyi 6-4 in the opening round of the UK Championship. Williams, whose best break was an 86 to nudge over the line, is keen to avoid the mishaps which hampered his chances of making it a trio of successes in recent years. “This tournament hasn’t really been good for me in the last few years,” admitted Wales’ three-time world champion.

Glamorgan will start the 2024 County Championship season away to Middlesex at Lord’s on April 5. Thet follow that up with a home clash against Derbyshire at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Friday, 12th April.

Matt Richards has revealed how going back to school helped the 20-year-old Welsh swimming star become world champion. Richards was part of British Swimming’s national performance centre, based in Bath, but decided to make a switch after some below par performances in 2022.

Wales’ Olympic gold medallist Lauren Price will face former European champion Silvia Bortot on December 10. The fight takes place on the undercard of Chris Billam-Smith’s WBO world cruiserweight title bout against Mateusz Masternak in Bournemouth.

Matthew Hirst/Declan Dear clinched the Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship title for a record-equalling third time after winning the Wyedean Stages Rally in their Delta Salvage/Witham Group Ford Fiesta R5. Recent heavy rain had left the Forest of Dean stages very wet and slippery, and despite a cautious start Hirst admitted to a few overshoots on the morning’s loop of three stages.

Glamorgan batsman Marnus Labuschagne is a world champion after he played a key role in helping Australia beat India to win the World Cup. Labuschagne – who began his stint with the Welsh county in 2019 and will return again next summer – hit 58 not out as the Aussies regained their status as the kings of one-day cricket.

Elfyn Evans paid tribute to his team after the Welsh driver secured runners-up spot in the World Rally Championship following victory at Rally Japan. Evans clinched his eighth career win by finishing a dominant 1min 17.7sec ahead of team-mate Sébastien Ogier at this final round of the season.

Tim Baker knows more than anyone that enabling hockey to thrive in North Wales takes hard graft – on and off the field. President of Eirias Hockey Club in Colwyn Bay, Tim was involved in the merger of Colwyn Bay and Llandudno hockey clubs five years ago. Since then – despite some predictions it might prove an unhappy marriage – Eirias have thrived and now run three men’s and three women’s teams, plus successful junior sections that operate from U10 to U18.

National coach Josh Morgan believes a healthy medal tally from the Home Nations International tournament proves the future strength of Welsh table tennis will extend beyond Anna Hursey. In a week where 17-year-old Hursey broke into the top 100 women players in the world, other Welsh youngsters underlined their protentional in Bangor at the weekend.

It’s a long way from a muddy November cross country on Llandaff Fields to the start of an Olympic marathon on an August morning in the centre of Paris. But Dewi Griffiths hopes his latest outing at Saturday’s Cardiff Cross Challenge will be another step on the journey towards realising his Olympic dream next summer.