Lauren Price . . . she came, she saw, she conquered and now they have painted a telephone box gold in her honour. But what now for Wales’ Olympic boxing champion? Her national team coach with Wales, Colin Jones, tells Tom Prosser of his long-term faith in the fighter and why he believes Price will compete at both the next Commonwealth Games and Olympics. Lauren Price has achieved something no Welsh boxer has ever managed before, but the coach heading Wales’ Commonwealth Games squad in the sport is not surprised. Price has returned home to Ystrad Mynach to a hero’s welcome after becoming Olympic champion in Tokyo – something no Welsh boxer had previously done in history.

By Rob Carbon  Glamorgan fell to a four run defeat in their final Royal London One-Day Cup clash with Yorkshire Vikings, but still managed to top Group B and bag a home semi-final on Monday.  They were able to stay on top of the table despite their loss thanks to a superior net run rate over the eight pool matches. Coach, David Harrison is delighted with his team’s form and doesn’t believe this defeat will dent his side’s confidence going into the knockout stage

Olympic medallist Holly Bradshaw will be part of a strong entry for this weekend’s Welsh Senior Athletics Championships in Cardiff. Bradshaw – who won a bronze medal in Tokyo in the pole vault – is set to be joined over Saturday and Sunday by the likes of Great Britain Olympic 4×400 team member Joe Brier and the best of Wales’ athletics talent, many of whom will be chasing qualifying standards for next year’s Commonwealth Games as well as medals. Olympic 1500m finalist Jake Heyward is entered in strong 5,000m and 1,500m fields, but it has yet to be confirmed whether he will race following his efforts in Tokyo which saw him finish ninth in the final.

Cardiff and Swansea athletes warmed up for this weekend’s Welsh Athletics Championships with some excellent performances in the National Athletics League. Swansea Harriers produced a fine all-round performance to finish second to Bristol and West AC in the Premiership West fixture in Yate with Cardiff Athletics 4th. The result leaves Swansea in 11th place out of 16 teams in the Premiership table, with Cardiff Athletics in 13th. Thames Valley Harriers lead the league from Harrow AC.

By Alex Bywater  Welsh Fire’s men’s and women’s sides had days to forget at Edgbaston on Monday as both teams were hammered by Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred. But an immediate shot at redemption is on the cards with a trip to Southern Brave today (WEDS) offering a chance for the Cardiff-based outfits to bounce back. Fire’s men’s head coach Gary Kirsten admitted he was hugely disappointed to see his team dispatched by the Phoenix by a mammoth 93 runs.

By Owen Morgan Welsh sprinting siblings Hannah and Joe Brier have enjoyed an eventful few days on the track. Firstly Joe represented Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics where he took part in the men’s 4x400m relay heats. The following day, Hannah was a gust of wind away from breaking the Welsh women’s 100m record at the National Athletics League Match in Yate.

By Tom Prosser Welsh boxing star Lauren Price created history for both herself and her country at the Olympics as she became the first person from Wales to win a gold medal for boxing. Price who lives in Ystrad Mynach, battled her way to Olympic glory in the women’s middleweight final early on Sunday morning, defeating China’s Li Qian to take top spot on the podium but her route to success has been a rather unusual one to say the least. When she opted to chase her dream of Olympic boxing glory over her promising club football with Cardiff City, she helped make ends meet by driving a taxi at weekends.

The Tokyo Olympics will be remembered as the Games where Welsh women re-wrote their country’s history. Hannah Mills and Lauren Price not only came home with gold medals, but their achievements were trailblazing firsts for the nation. Together with Matt Richards and Calum Jarvis, they not only contributed to three gold medal events won by Welsh athletes for Great Britain (providing gold for four athletes as swimmers Richards and Jarvis were part of the 4 x 200m freestyle relay squad) but the Welsh female pair have now gone where no others have gone before.

By James Skeldon  Glamorgan coach David Harrison was full of praise for the way in which his side put themselves on the verge of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the Royal London Cup with a comprehensive eight wicket win over the Notts Outlaws at Sophia Gardens. “The boys were fantastic. We’ve bowled well all competition and to knock off only 73 runs has made us very happy,” said Harrison. “We saw that the pitch had been used on Friday for the Welsh Fire game in The Hundred and had been under cover for a few days, so we thought there would be a bit of moisture in the pitch if we bowled first.

Lauren Price confirmed her status as Wales’ greatest Olympic boxer by winning gold in Tokyo and then dedicated all her achievements to her grandparents. The fighter from Ystrad Mynach dominated her final bout against China’s Li Qian to gain a 5-0 points victory and become the first Welsh boxer to win an Olympic title. Already a world champion in the sport, Price, 27, could now lay claim to being one of Wales’ greatest ever sports stars – male or female – having also won world titles in kickboxing, played 52 times for the Wales women’s football team, and made age group appearances for her country in both netball and taekwondo.

After injury restricted him to just three races last year, Jake Heyward finished ninth in the Olympic 1500m final in Tokyo on Saturday lunchtime. The Cardiff’s athlete’s Olympic debut has been remarkable considering the injury problems he has endured over the past two years. To qualify for the planet’s biggest sporting event was a huge achievement, but the Welshman has thrived in Japan.

Joel Makin is determined to use his triumph at the British squash championships to kick on higher into the world’s top 10. Makin became the first Welsh male player to win the British Nationals on Friday and he did it in style, without dropping a game in the tournament. It was a dominant display by the 26-year-old from Pembrokeshire who overcame England’s Adrian Waller in the final, 3-0 (11-7, 11-2, 11-1).

Welsh Fire’s New Zealand superstar Glenn Phillips has no doubt his team can rise from the ashes and seal a place in the knock-out stages of The Hundred despite the team suffering a third straight defeat. The Cardiff-based men’s team were beaten by Trent Rockets by six wickets on Friday night leaving them in fifth place in the table with four points from five matches. After winning their first two games, Fire are on a bad run but Phillips believes they can turn it around with three more matches still to come.

By Owen Morgan Making history is becoming a happy habit for Olympic 1500m finalist Jake Heyward. When the Cardiff athlete was named in the Great Britain team to travel to Japan, he became the first Welshman in 89 years to compete at the Olympics over 1500m. Not since Pembroke Dock’s Reginald Heber Thomas took to […]

By Paul Jones Welsh boxing history maker Lauren Price is now only one win away from being the first ever Welsh boxer to win an Olympic gold medal. Price, who is also the first ever Welsh female boxer at an Olympics, shrugged off a one-point deduction to edge past her great rival Nouchka Fontijn and reach the Olympic women’s middleweight final via the narrowest of split decisions. “I am into the final now and it is a dream come true. I am not stopping now – my aim is to win that gold. I am going to give it my all,” said a delighted but focused Price.

Welsh duo Sarah Jones and Leah Wilkinson will return home from Tokyo as Olympic medal winners after Great Britain beat India to earn bronze. The pair played their part as GB came from behind to clinch a dramatic 4-3 victory in Tokyo. It completed a 15-year mission for Jones and Wilkinson who were overlooked by GB for years as they racked up Welsh caps before finally joining the GB squad for this Olympic cycle.

Jake Heyward has seized his opportunity to claim a hugely impressive place in the final of the 1500m at his first Olympic Games by smashing the Welsh record for the distance. The 22-year-old Welsh star ran a personal best of 3:32.82 to take sixth place in his semi-final and qualify as one of the two fastest athletes not inside the top five. The second semi-final was run at a blistering pace as winner Abel Kipsang of Kenya broke the Olympic record with a time of 3:31.65.

By Tom Prosser  “We are not stupid, we look at the lineups of other teams and we may not be the best team on paper but the togetherness we have will make us thrive and come out on top.” Those are the motivational words of Welsh Fire all-rounder Georgia Hennessy who is hoping her side can continue their winning run as they aim to win three matches on the bounce when they take on the Trent Rockets at Sophia Gardens on Friday.

He’s one of the most exciting, and busiest, young athletes in Wales – runner, triathlete, Commonwealth Games hopeful, Olympic dream-chaser and still only 18 years old. Osian Perrin is a young man in a hurry. Owen Morgan just about caught up with him. “The summer is made for racing, so why not make the most if it?” Those were the words of Osian Perrin when I gasped at the Anglesey teenager’s up-coming schedule.

By Alex Bywater  After winning their opening two matches in The Hundred, the Welsh Fire men have now suffered back to back defeats but Gary Kirsten’s team are looking to get back to winning ways when the Trent Rockets visit Sophia Gardens on Friday.  Captain Ben Duckett is in the form of his life but admits all his runs don’t count for much if his team lose games. Left hander Duckett has been red hot in The Hundred to date and he continued in that mood with 65 runs against Oval Invincibles in London on Tuesday.