World champion Samantha Murray and her fellow Brits advance in opening World Cup, while action gets underway at Track Cycling World Championships. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Modern pentathlon world champion Samantha Murray moved safely into the final of the year’s first World Cup in Sarasota, USA.
The London 2012 silver medallist, competing internationally for the first time since winning her world title in Warsaw last year, was fourth in her group, posting one of the fastest swim times en route to scoring 908 points.
British no. 1 Kate French was also in fine form to top her group and qualify for Friday’s 36-athlete final with 940 points.
Freyja Prentice and Joanna Muir complete the quartet of British athletes to make the final on a day with Prentice third in a high-scoring group B with 946 points, whilst Muir, debuting at this level, was ninth in French’s group with 920 points.
It was a day of contrasting fortunes for Great Britain's team at the track cycling World Championships in Paris.
The women's team pursuit quartet - Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Katie Archibald and Joanna Rowsell - were beaten for the first time in four years.
But they still qualified as second fastest into today's first round.
Their male counterparts were also competitive, as Andy Tennant, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke ranked only behind New Zealand during qualifying.
But while both their medal hopes are alive today, there was disappointment for Great Britain's sprinters.
Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner finished eighth fastest in the men's team sprint qualifying.
It was the same position achieved by Jess Varnish and Victoria Williamson in the women's event.
Three-time Olympic champion Kenny will be back in today's keirin, an event in which he won the rainbow jersey two years ago in Minsk.
Elsewhere, Williamson and Katy Merchant line up in the women's 500m time trial and Matthew Gibson competes in the men's scratch race.
Chris Froome trails general classification leader Alberto Contador by eight seconds after the opening two stages of the Ruta del Sol in Spain.
The first day was split into two, with a 118.3km road stage in the morning being won by Lotto Soudal’s Pim Lightart. Both Contador and Froome finished two seconds down on the Dutchman in the main bunch after avoiding a late crash.
In the afternoon, Javier Moreno won a rolling 8.2km time trial, beating runner-up Wilco Kelderman by two seconds and third-placed Jerome Coppel by four seconds.
Contador finished fourth, six seconds back, and now tops the general classification, level on time with second-placed Bob Jungels.
Benat Intxausti is one second adrift in third, while Froome, who was 10th in the time trial, climbed to fourth overall. His fellow Briton and Team Sky team-mate Peter Kennaugh is sixth.
David Murdoch guaranteed Olympic curling silver alongside his Team GB rink of Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow.
Murdoch kept his head in a tense semi-final with Swedish world champion Niklas Edin in Sochi.
Elsewhere, Eve Muirhead's women's rink lost narrowly to Canada in their semi-final to set up a bronze medal match with Switzerland.
Meanwhile, Paula Walker and Rebekah Wilson finished 12th in the women's bobsleigh.
© Sportsbeat 2015