Career best win for Rajiv Ouseph and success for Chris and Gabby Adcock at badminton's All England Championships plus skeleton, cycling and rugby sevens and European Games medals are revealed. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours
Rajiv Ouseph insists he must build on his remarkable victory after beating third seed Son Wan Ho in the most dramatic of circumstances at badminton's Yonex All England Open Championships in Birmingham.
Son had already saved one match point in the deciding set when the Korean challenged a close line-call on the second.
The umpire originally ruled that Ouseph’s smash was in and big-screen replays confirmed this call to hand the Englishman a 21-16, 18-21, 21-19 win in front of a partisan home crowd.
And while admitting that victory over the world number four was one of his best, the 28-year-old says his hard work will be undone unless he follows that up in the second round today.
“I’m just happy to have won and happy to have done it at my home tournament – I’m just really thrilled," said Ouseph.
“This is definitely up there in terms of best career victories for me – he’s obviously very highly ranked and he made the semi-finals here last year.
"I’ve had big opening wins here before and then not produced in the round two, so for me the challenge is consistency and hopefully I can do that.”
Ouseph will face either India’s H.S. Prannoy as he looks to make the quarter-finals for the first time.
Chris and Gabby Adcock insist they must keep their standards up in the second round of the Yonex All England Championships.
There are high hopes for the mixed doubles partnership, who are seeded sixth coming into this week’s prestigious championships in Birmingham.
And they certainly made light work of their first round opponents on Wednesday, defeating Markis Kido and Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth 21-15, 21-8.
Fellow Indonesian duo Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Greysia Polio now lie in wait in the last 16.
“We’ve got to make sure we impose ourselves on our next opponents and get comfortable like we did in the first round,” said Chris Adcock, a former silver medallist in 2011 with former partner Imogen Bankier.
“We could never underestimate that pair – we have lost to them in the past, albeit quite a long time ago.
“We know Polii very well and although she’s more known for her women’s doubles, she is obviously a world-class player.
“We haven’t seen a lot of Kevin but I know he’s a young lad, so I expect him to be very quick and very fast.”
Lizzy Yarnold admits claiming the title at this week's skeleton World Championships would rank alongside the Olympic gold she claimed at Sochi 2014.
The 26-year-old already has an impressive list of achievements to her name, including winning the Olympics and World Cup last year and this season's European Championships.
But the world title has however eluded her until now, with her best finish a bronze in 2012, while she finished fourth the following year.
"It would be a real career-high," said Yarnold. "To have all four titles in 13 months would be amazing - that has never happened before.
"As soon as I crossed the line in Sochi I knew I wanted to be world champion, that is what all my preparation has been for this season and it would be as important as being Olympic champion.
"I love the track. It's easy to get down, but hard to get down fast. I'm desperate to be world champion and I would love it to be in Winterberg."
While Britain's cyclists might have come away from track cycling World Championships without a gold medal, Ed Clancy insists he is not concerned - with the bigger picture his main priority.
"It's an Olympic programme, as much as we'd enjoy picking up a load of gold medals, it's not really that important," said Clancy, who is gearing up for next month’s Good Friday Meeting at the London 2012 velodrome.
"Of course we want to win, but the whole squad not getting a gold, that's probably something management and the coaches are more concerned about than I am.
"I just look at what I'm doing and focus on what I'm trying to achieve and that went all right. We're making good progress, but we've got to keep making it. We can take confidence from that."
Tickets for the 110-year old Good Friday Meeting - which has featured the likes of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Queally and Victoria Pendleton in recent years - are available on the event website.
England women's rugby sevens head coach Simon Middleton believes the return of Emily Scarratt and Sarah McKenna can provide a timely boost to the team ahead of the World Series in Atlanta this month.
World Cup winner Scarratt has been sidelined since October with injury while McKenna has been involved in the current Six Nations campaign.
But they are both set to make their first appearances on the sevens circuit when the team heads to Atlanta for round three between March 14-15.
Abigail Chamberlain will lead the side as England look to improve on two consecutive plate wins in Dubai and Brazil.
And with England also aiming to boost their standings with one eye on securing Team GB's qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympics, Middleton is confident of his squad stepping up to the mark.
"It's great to be welcoming back these players into the squad. Emily brings a tremendous amount of experience and quality strike power which we have missed in certain areas of our game," he said.
"She also offers us flexibility in a number of positions while Sarah has really thrown her hat in the ring with some brilliant form of late and I am excited to have her back in the squad.
"We are happy with the pool draw but we know it will be tough. Brazil played fantastically well on day one in Brazil so we cannot underestimate them.
"China can be really dangerous as well, though they are yet to hit their stride in the World Series and Canada are a side that are getting better and better."
Yesterday marked 100 days until the opening ceremony of the first-ever European Games in Baku - with organisers revealing the medal designs.
“It has always been our intention to recognise the first European Games athletes’ achievements with a medal design as unique as the occasion itself," said organising committee chief executive Azad Rahimov.
"There are now only 100 days before the start of the Games, and I am sure that these beautiful medals will provide athletes with inspiration and raise the public’s anticipation even further during the countdown to the event in June.”
© Sportsbeat 2015