By Owen Morgan Aled Davies has spoken of his “absolute honour” at being named co-captain of the Great Britain athletics team alongside Hannah Cockroft at the Tokyo Paralympics. The Cardiff Athletics thrower won gold in Rio five years ago to add to his illustrious list of career titles. Having burst onto the international scene with gold and bronze medals at the 2012 London Paralympics, Davies will be defending his title in the men’s F63 shot put on Saturday 4 September.

Ben Pritchard is used to arriving ahead of schedule. He joined the British rowing squad just a year after becoming a para rower in 2017 and is now about to compete at his first Paralympics in Tokyo after first targeting Paris in 2024, as David Williams reports. The last time rowing took place at the Paralympics, Ben Pritchard was laying in a hospital bed, wondering how he was going to rebuild his life. The Welsh para rower suffered a life-changing cycling accident in 2016 at the very time the best disabled athletes on the planet had gathered to compete in Rio de Janeiro.

By Tom Prosser  Welsh snooker legend Mark Williams says he was ‘destined to win’ the British Open on Sunday evening as he beat Gary Wilson 6-4 to claim yet another ranking title. “I’m a little bit fortunate to win it,” said Williams who first won the British Open title in 1997. “There were two or probably three matches that I definitely should have lost but somehow I managed to win them.

By Tom Prosser  When soon-to-be Paralympian Harrison Walsh first started his athletics journey, it was obvious to his coach he had a future star on his hands. Walsh – who was a highly promising rugby player with the Ospreys before a serious injury closed that route – will be competing in the F64 Discus at the Paralympics as he aims to win a medal at his debut Games.  He will be joined in Tokyo by six other Welsh track and field athletes, including Aled Davies, who will be competing at the Paralympics for the third time in the F63 Shot Put. 

When their 2019 British American Football campaign finished the South Wales Warriors were already planning for 2020 as the club’s comeback season. They had sealed a perfect season with the Division Two (South) championship on the final weekend of August 2019 and were set to start their climb back towards the Premiership having also secured their place in Division One of the British American Football Association National League. The club’s rebuilding efforts were finally being rewarded but its much anticipated 2020 season would never materialise. Like so much sport below the professional level British American Football had remained in, seemingly indefinite, suspension since March 2020. 

Gold Coast Commonwealth Games race walk medallist Bethan Davies has bounced back from illness to gain the nomination standard for next year’s games in Birmingham. Davies enjoyed an outstanding 2018 season which saw her dominate the domestic scene, compete at the European Championships and take bronze in the 20k race walk in Australia. Over the past two years, however, the multiple Welsh and British champion has seen her form dip due to a series of immune-related illness and viruses.    

Glamorgan hero Andrew Salter believes the lack of expectation on a young team helped them thrive after the county got their hands on the Royal London Cup by defeating Durham in the Trent Bridge final. Glamorgan lost batsman Colin Ingram, wicketkeeper Chris Cooke, all-rounders David Lloyd and Dan Douthwaite and seamer Timm van der Gugten to the inaugural edition of The Hundred, but those left behind have stepped up Kiran Carlson was appointed one-day captain in the absence of Cooke and Lloyd and he led the way against Durham with a belligerent 82 from 59 balls that helped Glamorgan post a competitive 296 for nine after they lost the toss.

Glenn Phillips will relish the opportunity to be part of Welsh Fire if the big-hitting batsman is signed again next season. The New Zealander smashed a magnificent 80 from 35 balls against London Spirit on Wednesday night and at one stage looked poised to become the first player in The Hundred to reach a century. He didn’t quite make it in the end, but his destructive innings paved the way for Welsh Fire to win by three wickets at Sophia Gardens with three balls to spare.

By Alex Bywater Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson wants his team to relish the pressure of their first List A final since 2013 when they face Durham at Trent Bridge on Thursday with the Royal London Cup on the line. The Welsh side have had a superb campaign in the 50-over format and now only Durham stand between them and a first trophy since 2004. It has been 17 long years since a Glamorgan captain last lifted silverware – a streak Carlson is hoping to break with victory in Nottingham.

By Tom Prosser “The atmosphere at the grounds in The Hundred is something I’ve never experienced before.” Those are the thoughts of Georgia Redmayne who’s Welsh Fire side fell to a 7-wicket defeat to London Spirit on Tuesday evening. The Fire set their opponents a modest target of 96 which was chased down with 42 balls to spare. “We probably were about 30/40 runs light,” explained Redmayne.

By Tom Prosser Welsh Fire’s David Lloyd insists the Welsh Fire are looking to ‘go out with a bang’ as they take on Shane Warne’s London Spirit at Sophia Gardens on Wednesday evening. “It’s been a difficult competition for us,” explained Lloyd who plays his county cricket with Glamorgan. “We’ve been unfortunate with injuries and losing Jonny Bairstow to England after two games wasn’t helpful.

By Paul Evans Matthew Rees is setting the UK single-seater motor racing world alight, after taking the lead in the prestigious F4 British Championship mid-way through his debut season. With 15 of the 30 rounds completed, the Cardiff teenager is sitting on top of the leaderboard, thanks to another double podium finish last weekend at Knockhill. That puts the F4 rookie five points clear of the field, having knocked James Hedley, who is in his second season of F4 racing, off the top of the points table in Scotland.

By Alex Bywater Glamorgan’s Joe Cooke has revealed the magnitude of his match-winning performance against Essex is still ‘sinking in’ as he guided his side to a first one-day cup final in eight years. Cooke was the star of the show for the Welsh side on a belting Sophia Gardens wicket as he took five for 61 with the ball and guided Glamorgan home by striking an unbeaten 66. “It’s a pretty cool and special feeling,” explained Cooke, who only made is 50-over debut just under a month ago.

Osian Pryce and Matt Edwards are embroiled in a close fight for this year’s British Rally Championship title, with the advantage swinging from one driver to the other after each round. And that’s good news for Melvyn Evans Motorsport, who run both Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 cars for the battling stable-mates, as it attempts to win the BRC Teams’ trophy. Pryce, from Machynlleth, and Edwards, from Colwyn Bay, finished third and fourth respectively on the opening round of the series, the Neil Howard Stages at Oulton Park.

Holly Bradshaw returned ‘home’ to Wales to celebrate her Olympic Games bronze medal winning performance on Sunday. On the day a huge welcome home party for Great Britain’s Olympic heroes was being held in London, Bradshaw was busy competing at the Welsh Athletics Championships in Cardiff. And the athlete, who spent five years living and training in the Welsh capital, ensured she made it an occasion to remember by breaking her own Welsh all-comers record.

Tom Marshall won his 16th Welsh title across all running disciplines on Sunday in one of the closest races of his illustrious career. The Cardiff middle distance star has moved up to run 5,000m on the track this season after making his name primarily over 800 and 1500m. But he will seldom have been pushed closer than he was in the final few steps of the 12.5-lap race around the Cardiff International Sports Campus track.

Matt Richards has swum his way to Olympic glory, Stephen Dodd proved king of the senior golfers, and Alex Griffiths helped Welsh Fire ignite in the women’s new Hundred cricket competition. The trio are underlining how elite Welsh sports stars are coming to the fore after negotiating the perils and obstacles of the pandemic. But away from the top level, what’s the situation at sport’s grass roots after almost 18 months of living under the cloud of Covid 19?

Shot putter Adele Nicoll took her last chance to claim a Commonwealth Games qualifying standard on Saturday before turning her attention to her bobsleigh ambitions. The Birchfield Harrier had been knocking on the door of claiming the qualifying standard all season, but appeared to be running out of time when she took part in Saturday’s Welsh Athletics Championships in Cardiff. With bobsleigh World Cup trials on the horizon next month, Nicoll needed to nail the Commonwealth Games standard in Cardiff on Saturday.

A weekend at the Welsh Athletics Championships in Cardiff was just what the doctor ordered for Sarah Abrams. The Blackheath and Bromley athlete only started work as a newly qualified doctor on Wednesday and won the Welsh triple jump title on Saturday. Abrams, normally a long jumper, had opted for the triple jump due to a lack of training, having only finished her medical studies in the spring.

Joel Makin will go into next week’s British Open boosted by a runners-up spot at the Manchester Open. Wales’ world number 10 – who became the first player from Wales to triumph at the British Nationals two weeks ago – continued his rich vein of current form at the tournament but was edged out in the final by Peru’s Diego Elias. Makin said: “Overall I’ve had a great two weeks.