Peter Kennaugh maintains his overall lead at the Sun Tour with one stage remaining while England Sevens reach the quarter-finals in Sydney. Here's our review of the last 24 hours.
Peter Kennaugh isn’t resting on his laurels despite maintaining his overall lead on stage three of the Sun Tour in Australia.
On what was a classic sprinter’s stage, Kennaugh and Team Sky team-mate Chris Froome stayed safely in the pack as United Healthcare’s John Murphy won the day ahead of Niccolo Bonifazio and Steele von Hoff.
That means Kennaugh still wears the leader’s bib with an overall time of 9:54:13 hours with Froome in second spot 13 seconds back.
With Sunday’s final stage including the famous climb up Arthurs Seat, the 26-year-old is not expecting an easy ride – even if he isn’t overly familiar with a lot of his competitors.
“I don’t really know a lot of the riders. Obviously a lot of the domestic teams have strong guys and it’s their summer and they’re all going well but I don’t know the names,” said Kennaugh.
“I am sure there are guys who are mega up for it. The Avanti team seems quite strong on the climbs so we’ll just have to watch out for guys like that I guess.
“We have a bit of cushion on GC over a few people but still, it would be nice to be able to finish off with a stage win.”
England won three games from three to top pool D at the Sydney leg of the World Rugby Seven Series.
Simon Amor’s troops cruised to victory in their opener against Japan, running in four tries during a 26-5 victory before a three-try showing enabled them to down Wales, who finished third in the pool, 21-5.
And in the pool decider against USA, England battled hard to triumph with captain Tom Mitchell notching the only second-half try in a 17-14 win.
Meanwhile, in pool B, Scotland finished third after one win and two losses from their three matches.
British Lionhearts recorded their second win in as many World Series of Boxing contests as Frazer Clarke won the decisive bout of a 3-2 victory over Morocco Atlas Lions in Casablanca.
Clarke recorded a unanimous points victory over Ahmed Bourous in the superheavyweight division after flyweight Muhammad Ali and lightweight Luke McCormack had beaten Daraa Daraa and Abdellah Boudrar respectively, earlier in the night.
Those triumphs had given the Lionhearts a 2-0 lead but the Lions fought back to 2-2 as Mohammed Rabii beat Ekow Essuman at welterweight and Hassan Saada was too strong for Thomas Whittaker-Hart at light heavyweight.
But Clarke held his nerve as the British boxers backed up their opening win over USA Knockouts and next face Mexico Guerreros at York Hall in London on February 18.
Chris Coles kept his hopes of double gold at the English National Championships alive with a pair of contrasting victories in Derby on Friday night.
The 23-year-old partnered Sophie Brown in the mixed doubles and they saw off Gary Fox and Lauren Smith, last year's beaten finalists, in a gruelling three-setter.
Coles and Brown eventually triumphed 21-15, 14-21, 21-17 after 62 minutes in what was the longest match of the day at the University of Derby Sports Centre.
Coles then turned his attention to the men's doubles where he partnered recently-retired international Andy Ellis.
The duo had much more serene progress, taking just 22 minutes to dispatch Andy Cooper and David Edgar 21-9, 21-9 to reach the quarter-finals.
And Coles acknowledges the mixed doubles triumph was a real battle for he and Brown.
"It was a tough match but we expected that before the game," Coles told Badminton England.
"I had a bit of a setback in the first set with a bit of cramp but Sophie pulled me through."
Laura Deas narrowly missed out on a medal at the European Skeleton Championships as she finished fifth in St Moritz.
The event, which also doubled as the latest round of the World Cup, saw Deas lying fourth after the first run but she dropped one place during the second run as Janine Flock of Austria triumphed.
Fellow Brit Donna Creighton was the tenth-fastest European and 15th-fastest overall while in the men’s event Dom Parsons was 11th overall but the eight-quickest European.
Mark Cavendish’s chances of defending his Dubai Tour total are all but over after he suffered a puncture in the final kilometres of stage three to Hatta Dam.
After putting in a sterling effort to stay with the front group despite the hilly terrain, Cavendish punctured and following a delay as he waited for a wheel change, he was unable to make contact with the leaders late on.
The Dimension Data rider eventually finished over five minutes behind stage winner Juan Jose Lobato to now lie 90th overall while Team Sky’s Ben Swift is the highest-placed Brit in 19th – 44 seconds behind leader Giacomo Nizzolo.
Jessica Ennis-Hill insists she cannot afford to take any risks when it comes to trying to defend her Olympic heptathlon title after announcing she will miss the indoor athletics season through injury.
The 30-year-old had been set to begin her season at the Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix on February 20 but has reluctantly withdrawn due to an Achilles injury.
The heptahlete struggled with an Achilles problem in 2013, which caused her to miss the World Championships in Moscow, so is once again listening to both her body and coaches by skipping Glasgow.
Read more from Ennis-Hill here
The enthralling summer that was London 2012 will never be forgotten but according to rower Alan Campbell, Rio 2016 has the potential to be like a second home Olympic Games for him.
Campbell won single scull bronze in London and is currently battling for an Olympic seat four years on.
What would make the experience even more special for the 32-year-old is the fact that his father-in-law was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro.
And Campbell is hoping his insider knowledge of Brazil could be just the edge he needs when the best in the world do battle at the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas come August.
“My wife’s father is a Carioca, having been raised on Ipanema in Rio,” Campbell explained to British Rowing.
“He is now living in England but my wife still has family in Brazil and it would be very special for me to compete there feeling like a second home Olympics.”
Read more from Campbell and other GB rowers here
Great Britain will take on Belgium on Saturday morning for a place in the World Group II play-offs after another Katie Swan-inspired performance helped the team see off Georgia 2-1 on Friday.
As had been the case in Thursday’s match against South Africa, the 16-year-old had been tasked with opening the tie in the first of the singles matches.
And she once again rose to the occasion, upsetting world number 327 Ekaterine Gorgodze – a player ranked 197 places higher than her – to win 6-3 6-3.
British number two Heather Watson then took to the court knowing victory over Sofia Shapatava would put Great Britain into an unassailable 2-0 lead regardless of the outcome of the women’s doubles.
A 6-2, 6-0 win duly followed and while Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith were unable to overcome Shapatava and Oksana Kalashnikova, going down 6-2 6-4, it was not enough to prevent Great Britain topping Pool B in Europe/Africa Group 1.
Read Judy Murray’s reaction to the win here Sportsbeat 2016