BOXING

Joe Calzaghe has paid tribute to his late father and former trainer Enzo who has been posthumously inducted in the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame.

Joe – Wales’ greatest and most successful world champion – picked up the honour on his father’s behalf and had a heartfelt tribute to the man who died in 2018.

The former super-middleweight world champion admitted: “Not a day goes by when I don’t miss my dad. He was gone too soon.

“His energy was something that was just very different. It worked for me. We thought about other trainers at times, and getting them on board, but we conquered the world on our own.

“I didn’t really realise how rare that was.

“The gym is still open, but it’s not the same. I miss his screaming and yelling.

“I think his methods were timeless, but these days, people think everything has to be very scientific.

“I might have made things easier for myself if I’d realised the science behind a lot of what we did. My dad was a good trainer and the methods had science behind them, but I just didn’t realise that at the time.

 

ATHLETICS

After last week’s elite cross country runners competed in Cardiff, this weekend is the turn of club runners who will be racing in Newtown.

The Combined Welsh Inter-Schools / Inter-Regional Cross Country Championships will be held in Park Dolerw.

Athletes will compete individually and in a team for their respective Welsh regions in the Inter-Regional Championship.

Junior athletes will also compete for their schools in the Inter-Schools Championship and not school districts.

Hoping to make it three consecutive wins in a row is Lauren Cooper (East Wales). Cooper claimed the Senior Women’s title last year, completing the course in 23:31.

Earlier this year, Cooper took the Welsh 10k Road title, and will be looking for further success on Saturday.

Alaw Evans (South Wales) will be joining Cooper in the senior women’s race. Evans took victory at the Cardiff 10k in September and the Eryri Marathon three weeks ago.

There is a strong line up in the senior men’s race with Adam Bull and Jacob Tasker lining up for South Wales.

They will be joined by Josh Griffiths (West Wales) and both Tom Wood and Rhodri Owen of North Wales.

 

TABLE TENNIS

National coach Josh Morgan believes a healthy medal tally from the Home Nations International tournament proves the future strength of Welsh table tennis will extend beyond Anna Hursey.

In a week when 17-year-old Hursey broke into the top 100 women players in the world, other Welsh youngsters underlined their protentional in Bangor at the weekend.

Led by a gold medal display from Lowri Hurd and Ruby Elliott in the junior girls’ doubles, Wales came away from Bangor with 16 medals – one gold, eight silver and seven bronze.

The bi-annual tournament is a useful barometer of young talent pushing through among the competing nations of Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Hursey and seven-times Welsh champion Charlotte Carey were competing overseas, but the strong results achieved by Wales at both junior (U19) and cadet (U15) level has given Morgan plenty of encouragement around future success.

“It’s always difficult to gauge success from a one-off tournament, but the team performed really well and it was a very positive weekend,” said Morgan.

“The gold medal for Lowri and Ruby probably exceeded our expectations, if we are honest. It was something of a surprise result against the English girls, but it was absolutely fully deserved.”