Academic Dr Val Franklin is to become the new President of Wales Golf, the next stage on a journey that started with and still includes helping junior golfers in West and Mid Wales.

By Carl Field Welsh acrobat Dylan Howells flew home from Baku, Azerbaijan, yesterday with FOUR World Championship medals safely tucked in his luggage. The 21-year-old former Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni pupil, who hails from Risca, returned with the rest of the Great Britain delegation after a week to remember at the 2022 Acrobatic World Championships.

By Owen Morgan Welsh marathon runner Josh Griffiths has been selected to represent Great Britain at a second World Athletics Championships. The Swansea Harrier, who competed at the London games five years ago, is now on his way to this summer’s championships in Oregon. Griffiths famously emerged from the ranks of the club runners at the 2017 London Marathon to qualify for the World Championships on the capital’s streets later that year.

Anyone looking for inspirational figures in Welsh sport in the week of International Women’s Day would be advised to check out the incredible efforts of Menna Fitzpatrick. Urdd Gobaith Cymru recently held their #FelMerch (translation: Like a Girl) conference in Cardiff to tie in with the annual global diary marker on March 8. FelMerch is aiming to inspire and support young women and girls to get involved in sport at all levels and Fitzpatrick would take some beating as a role model.

By Hannah Blackwell Welsh taekwondo star Beth Munro won silver at the Paralympic Games last year and after rising through the ranks with Disability Sport Wales, she is now focused on inspiring others to take up opportunities such as the Swansea Para Sport Festival this summer. Starting off with a Disability Sport Wales insport event at Swansea University on 1 August 2022, the event will bring 5,000 participation opportunities across the festival including five competitive events at different venues. Attending an insport event can be a life-changing experience, as Beth Munro can testify. She attended a similar event in 2019 and this was where she was introduced to taekwondo.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has been appointed as the new chair of Sport Wales. The 11-time Paralympic gold medallist will succeed Lawrence Conway who steps down after five years in the role. Grey-Thompson will take up her new post in July.

Celtic Dragons head coach Danii Titmuss-Morris praised the performance of her team after they beat rivals Severn Stars in Worcester last night, claiming their first win in the 2022 Vitality Superleague season and only their second in two-and-a-half years. Dual sport Welsh netball and football international and former Stars player Nia Jones captained the Dragons. Whilst another former Stars’ player, Georgia Rowe, who finished the 2020 season as the second highest points scorer in the league with 151 goals before moving to Wales, played against her previous club. The 42-58 victory means the Dragons climb off the bottom of the table, leapfrogging the Stars and they now sit behind Wasps, who they face next week.

Josh Tarling led the way as Welsh riders won an incredible 17 medals at the British National Track Championships in Newport. Teenager Tarling followed up his individual title in the 120 lap points race, by also winning the men’s team pursuit, alongside Joe Holt, Harvey McNaughton and William Roberts. It proved to be a hugely memorable championships for home riders at the Geraint Thomas Velodrome as they secured five titles in all and 17 medals to lay down a marker ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this year.

Menna Fitzpatrick hailed an immediate alpine connection with new guide Gary Smith as the key to becoming the most decorated British Winter Paralympian of all-time. Welsh skier Fitzpatrick, 23, won her fifth Paralympic medal in Beijing on Sunday by soaring to a scintillating Super-G silver. The visually impaired athlete claimed four podium places at PyeongChang 2018 – including slalom gold – and now sits above fellow alpine skier Jade Etherington, who won three silvers and a bronze at Sochi 2014, on the all-time British list.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s netball teams will all compete at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham after securing three of the final six qualification spots. Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados are the other three teams to take final qualifying spots and join England, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, South Africa and Malawi this summer. Wales’ place was confirmed after they recently moved one place up to eighth position in the last World Netball rankings.

By Carl Field Wales’ best rhythmic gymnasts enjoyed success in Tartu, Estonia at the Miss Valentine Tartu Grand Prix last weekend as they continue to build towards the Commonwealth Games. Reigning Welsh senior champion Gemma Frizelle was competing in the Tartu Grand Prix, representing Great Britain. The 23-year-old, who is attached to Llanelli Rhythmic Gymnastics […]

By Hannah Blackwell Menna Fitzpatrick will not be sharing the athlete’s village with Russian or Belarusion competitors at the Winter Olympics after a dramatic about-turn by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Wales’ Paralympic champion Fitzpatrick is due to defend her slalom skiing title in Beijing when the Games starts this weekend. She would have been […]

By David Williams Wales hockey chief Kevin Johnson has said the men’s and women’s teams’ qualification for this year’s Commonwealth Games was always “a formality.” Both teams were confirmed on Wednesday as qualifiers for the Games in Birmingham, following a curious and opaque process overseen by the sport’s global governing body. Wales finished ninth in […]

By Hannah Blackwell Joel Makin has retained his position as the eighth-best male squash player in the world after the latest global squash rankings. The Welsh star stays comfortably inside the world’s top 10 following his recent runners-up spot at the Squash On Fire Open in Washington. Makin was beaten 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-5) by […]

By Carl Field Benjamin Eyre and Jea Maracha were crowned as the new senior all-around champions at the Welsh Artistic Gymnastics Championships staged in Cardiff over the weekend. For 23-year-old Eyre, the triumph marks his second Welsh men’s title and comes six years on from his first. He won with an all-around score of 76.636 […]

By Paul Evans Crashing out on the final day of a FIA World Rally Championship event is the one thing drivers dread, for without the option of restarting and at the very least throwing everything at the closing Power Stage it guarantees a zero points outcome. And that’s exactly what Elfyn Evans did at Rally […]

By Owen Morgan Welsh athletes enjoyed a gold rush of medals on the second day of the UK Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Sunday. Bethan Davies, Hannah Brier and Piers Copeland led the way by claiming UK titles in the 3,000m race walk, 200m and 1500m respectively. Meanwhile, there were bronze medals for Lauren […]

There was medal success on the track and in the field for Welsh athletes on the first day of the British Athletics Championships on Saturday. Sprinter Jeremiah Azu and shot putter Patrick Swan both produced personal best performances on their way to bronze medals in Birmingham.

James Hunt breezed to a hat-trick of Welsh Cross Country men’s titles at a windy Pembrey Country Park on Saturday, while Lauren Cooper claimed her first women’s gold at the championships. The 117th running of the George Crump MBE memorial event attracted hundreds of entries of all ages from all over Wales.

By Carl Field Josh Cook will be back competing in Cardiff this month for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic struck – and his return could not be more timely as he targets a second Commonwealth Games. The 21-year-old, who hails from Penarth and is currently at university in Chicago, was part of Team […]