New Cardiff Devils head coach Pete Russell has revealed he will look to build his roster around the team’s ‘Brit-core’ as the club bid to bounce back from a disappointing 2022/23 campaign. Russell was appointed as the Devils’ third coach in three years on Friday, signing a two-year deal, just a week after successfully leading Team GB back to the top tier of the IIHF World Championships. The 48-year-old will retain his Team GB role, but will now work with some of those GB stars at club level as he looks to re-establish the Devils as a leading Elite League outfit.

Aled Davies registered an F42 shot put world lead distance in Cardiff this week, despite suffering excruciating pain from long-standing hip problems. Such is the extent of the issues – similar to those suffered by two-time Wimbledon champion Sir Andy Murray – Davies travels to London on Monday for specialist treatment.

Poppy-Grace Stickler will once again be representing Great Britain next month after earning selection for the upcoming FIG Artistic World Challenge Cup series event in Osijek, Croatia. Team Wales Commonwealth Games star Stickler, 16, will be accompanied to Croatia by women’s artistic head national coach Tracey Skirton-Davies for the competition, which takes place from June 8 to 11.

Gerwyn Price fell at the final hurdle to Michael Smith who made it a hat-trick of Premier League wins on the spin in the final in Sheffield. The world champion followed up victories in Leeds and Manchester to join Michael van Gerwen in winning three successive nights in this year’s tournament.

It might be seven months since he won the British Rally Championship title, but while he’s been out of the driving seat Osian Pryce has been busy plotting his next sporting move. Becoming British rally champion last year was a sporting title Osian Pryce has, after several runner-up near misses, fought long and hard to achieve.

Geraint Thomas will start Tuesday’s fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia in fifth place after moving up one spot in the general classification standings. The Welsh star will begin the lumpy stage from Venosa to Lago Laceno 58 seconds behind race leader Remco Evenepoel.

Geraint Thomas admitted he was lucky to escape unharmed after a crash disrupted stage two of the Giro d’Italia and ruled out Mark Cavendish. The Welsh star revealed he was forced to brake hard to avoid hitting fallen riders, but managed to battle back to the front of the peloton following a split caused by the crash.

Lauren Price is already looking ahead to her next professional fight after revealing her pride at making history with her first pro title win. Wales’ Olympic champion made history, beating Kirstie Bavington to become the first professional women’s British welterweight champion.

Sam Northeast has warned England that his Glamorgan teammate Marnus Labuschagne is in “ridiculous” form already ahead of the Ashes series this summer. Northeast shared a stand of 148 with Labuschagne as the Australian cracked an unbeaten 170 against Yorkshire at Test venue Headingley. Labuschagne – who is at Glamorgan for an early season stint before linking up with the Aussies next month to take on England – has hit 299 runs in his last three innings.

Jay Harris has spoken of his pride at following in the footsteps of his father Peter and finally winning a British title. The Swansea fighter completed his set of domestic, Commonwealth and European titles when he beat Sheffield’s Tommy Frank on Friday to become British flyweight champion. Harris outlasted the defending champion before Frank’s corner retired their man in the 10th round.

Glamorgan had the better of a 15-wicket first day against Yorkshire at Headingley even though Jonny Bairstow claimed three catches on his return to competitive action following more than eight months out injured.

Jade Jones has recorded a confidence-boosting title win ahead of the World Taekwondo Championships starting in Baku, Azerbaijan at the end of the month. Wales’ two-time Olympic gold medalist and former world champion struck individual gold for Great Britain at the European Clubs’ Championship in Bulgaria.

Rose Thomas has become the sixth Wales hockey international to announce her retirement from the international game within the past eight months. The 30-year-old Wales goalkeeper – a stalwart for her country for a dozen years and who won 89 caps – has added to the major turnover within the squad by announcing she is to concentrate on club hockey only.

When Michael Jenkins was told to give up rugby, he admits it was as if someone had flicked the lights off on his sporting ambition. Five years on and the spotlight on the 18-year-old from Pembrokeshire is burning brightly after performances as a para-athlete which are nothing short of sensational.

All roads lead to the Eternal City – Rome – during the month of May for Geraint Thomas after he was confirmed in the INEOS Grenadiers line-up for the Giro d’Italia. Wales’ former Tour de France winner Thomas has a history of misfortune at the race but hopes to right those wrongs when the 106th edition begins on 6 May from Fossacesia Marina in the Abruzzo region, with a 19.6km time trial, and finishes on 28 May in Rome.

Following the second round of the 2023 JD Tyres Welsh Tarmacadam Championship, the SMC Stages, Darrian crews dominate the standing, filling the top three places. Multiple Welsh champions Richard Merriman/Kath Curzon found the stages at the Anglesey Racing Circuit to be challenging, with grip levels varying as the track was just damp in places, but wet elsewhere.

Jak Jones admitted he was dismayed with his own performance as he let a semi-final place at snooker’s World Championship slip through his grasp. The cueman from Cwmbran bowed out at the quarter-final stage in Sheffield after losing 13-10 to Mark Allen in a match both players felt did not show the best of their talents.

Jonny Bairstow proved he is on track for a return to Cardiff with Welsh Fire this summer as well as Ashes duty for England. The Yorkshire batsman fell three short of a dashing century on his first outing in almost eight months, picking up where he left off last summer as he hit the comeback trail with Yorkshire’s second team.

Welsh qualifier Jak Jones showed gritty determination as he and Mark Allen remained locked together after a gruelling second session of their quarter-final clash at the Cazoo World Snooker Championship. Jones – the only Welshman to make the last eight after the exit of Mark Williams – has proved the surprise package of the tournament after knocking out Neil Robertson in the last round.

Not many 16-year-old Welsh athletes have an eye on competing at next year’s Olympic Games – but then not many have had the kind of meteoric rise of Ruby Evans. When 2023 began, the then 15-year-old Cardiff schoolgirl had not even begun her senior career in the sport, but by the start of this month she was first reserve for the five-member Great Britain squad that won an historic women’s team gold at the European Championships.