Dai Sport

Dewi Griffiths smashed his 5k personal best in a lightning-fast elite men's race at the Podium 5K event on Saturday evening. Cambridge and Coleridge athlete Marc Scott finished first in a new British record time of 13:20 at the event in Barrowford, Lancashire, a mark which was just outside the European record. But it was Griffiths' sixth placed time of 13:43, which caught the eye in the week that it was announced this year's London Marathon would be an elite only race.

Aaron Ramsey has been offered a route towards more regular starts in Italy after Juventus appointed Andrea Pirlo as their manager following the sacking of Maurizio Sarri. Former Italy and Juve midfielder Pirlo is a stated admirer of Ramsey and the expectation is that the Wales international will now move from being a peripheral influence in Turin to a central performer. Since moving to Italy from Arsenal a year ago, Ramsey has been among Juve’s substitutes more often than he has begun games and has rarely been given an extended run of starts.

Geraint Thomas believes his return to the road is nicely paced as the countdown starts to the Tour de France at the end of the month. The Team Ineos rider raced for the first time competitively when he finished 24th in a bunched sprint at the end of the opening stage of the Tour de l’Ain in Ceyzériat, France on Friday. The Welsh 2018 Tour de France winner has happy with his display and will look for further progress in the remainder of the tour which continues on Saturday with a stage in the Jura mountains that includes five categorized climbs.

Welsh athletes will be looking to continue their successful return to action when they travel to Lancashire for this evening's prestigious Podium 5K event. Leading a strong Welsh contingent in the women’s field will be Jenny Nesbitt and Clara Evans. The Cardiff Athletics clubmates will be looking to follow up their excellent wins in Lisburn last weekend.

Former Wales star turned adventurer Richard Parks knows all about survival – and he believes keeping heads above water is all anyone in rugby can do at present. As the professional end of the game in Wales prepares to return in a fortnight, the man now renowned for toughing things out in a hostile environment reckons it’s going to take a huge effort to avoid the dangerous currents within the sport he used to play. After weeks of talks over pay cuts, the united front shown by the regional players collapsed when those at the Scarlets did their own deal by signing new contracts – leaving the Welsh Rugby Players Association looking weak and ineffective.

Canadian forward Mike McNamee has committed to Cardiff Devils for the 2020-21 Elite League season. McNamee is the 10th player to re-sign for the Devils for the new campaign and the sixth import. “Mike is such a versatile player, highly skilled, great defensively and also has so much offensive talent,” said club managing director Todd Kelman. 

With rallying currently still stuck in a ditch as other sports in Wales start to resume, past glories are all that’s on offer. So, the perfect excuse to hear from Wales’ swashbuckling former British Rally champion David Llewellin, who tells Paul Evans of his infamous highs and lows chasing the Welsh International Rally title. High speed impatience to score victory on his home Welsh International Rally undoubtedly delayed David Llewellin from lifting the winners’ trophy. The most spectacular of these, beyond limits misdemeanours, came in 1986, when he crashed his Metro 6R4 not once, but twice.

The first golf Major since lockdown begins today in San Francisco when players tee off at the US PGA. It’s another sporting instance where the men’s game is further down the road to recovery than the women’s – a discrepancy that Wales’ Lydia Hall finds all too familiar, as Graham Thomas reports. Lydia Hall flies back into the UK at the start of August – as determined to be high on the leaderboard at the Ladies Scottish Open as she is to help shake up women’s golf. After six months spent in Australia – four more than intended because of lockdown amid the global pandemic – the current Welsh No.3 has had plenty of time to assess her sport and its injustices.

Jonny Williams is hoping his one-year contract extension with Charlton Athletic can trigger more glory at the delayed European Championship finals next summer. The Wales midfielder – who was Chris Coleman’s occasional joker in the pack for the national team four years ago – has opted to extend his time with his current club. The 26-year-old was unable to stop Charlton going straight back down from the Sky Bet Championship last month – a year after he helped the Addicks into the second tier with promotion via the League One play-offs.

Can newcomer Sam Moore make the same impact as Nick Williams? The son of former Wales lock Steve Moore certainly has big boots to fill. Moore has been impressing everyone in training at Cardiff Blues since joining from Sale Sharks and turning his attentions away from representing England to playing for the land of his father, uncle and the city where he was born. A knee injury helped to take him off Eddie Jones' radar and now he will get the chance of a new beginning in a Blues shirt.