Olympic champion Greg Rutherford plays it safe after suffering a minor injury and a quartet from Great Britain go for glory at the skeleton World Championships. Here's our review of the last 24 hours:
Olympic and world long jump champion Greg Rutherford admitted it was a tough decision to make after withdrawing from the Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix.
Rutherford had been due to compete at the Emirates Arena on Saturday February 20 and return to Glasgow, having won Commonwealth Games gold there in 2014.
But a minor injury kept him out of competing on Friday and Rutherford has decided to take precaution with the Rio Olympics on the horizon.
Rutherford said: "I was planning on competing in Albuquerque again last Friday, but decided not to jump due to some minor pain I've felt during my warm up routine.
"Unfortunately I'm still dealing with this and while it hasn't been any easy decision, I have to withdraw from this week's Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix.
"It's just a minor injury I'm dealing with, but you have to be smart in an Olympic year.”
Great Britain may have only sent four sliders to the skeleton World Championships but performance director Andi Schmid is expecting some impressive displays and a medal from his squad.
Four Brits will be taking to the ice in the skeleton competition in Igls, Austria – Donna Creighton, Laura Deas, Dom Parsons and David Swift.
And with Deas ranked fourth in the world, Parsons sixth, and Creighton and Swift showing they are capable of competing at international level, Schmid is looking to continue the country’s proud record in the sport.
Schmid said: “Our quite official target is - even though we are not filling the maximum number of quota places - is to again get a medal like the last World Championships, and another two top tens would be a great achievement.
“This keeps us on track for the Pyeongchang games where our goal would be one medal and possibly another, but for that we need to create internal pressure and bring them closer and closer to the medals - if not medals top six.”
Great Britain’s most capped female basketball player Stef Collins is looking to use the lessons learned from being forced to sit on the sidelines when she returns to action for the national team at the weekend.
Collins was forced to miss the team’s opening EuroBasket Women 2017 Qualifying Round games in November due to injury, when Jose Maria Buceta started his reign as head coach with a 78-64 loss to Montenegro and then a 60-48 defeat to Italy.
But the 33-year-old is set to return to the team for the qualifiers against Albania on Saturday and Montenegro once more on February 24, with both taking place at Belle Vue Sports Village in Manchester.
"It's great to be back on the floor again with the girls and especially back here in Manchester as last November I was absolutely gutted that I didn't get to play,” said Collins.
"You have to learn to at least try and be patient and deal with the adversity of missing out, which is part of the sport.
"The most important part of having been injured is that I have been able to watch on the sideline and have a new perspective on what we are good at, and also where we need to improve. That is what I am going to try and bring into these two games.”
Skiing tips for the Youth Olympic Games don’t come much more sought after than from the most successful downhill athlete of all time and that’s exactly what Team GB’s two alpine skiers were treated to when Lindsey Vonn visited the Youth Olympic Village.
The 2010 Olympic Champion, who’s an ambassador for Lillehammer 2016, talked everything skiing with Yasmin Cooper and Iain Innes, inspiring the latter to a personal best in today’s giant slalom event as the Edinburgh man came down 17th in 2:41.94.
Innes finished 6.89 seconds off eventual winner America’s River Radamus in the field of 60 and heeded Vonn’s advice to challenge himself on the slopes.
“The key things I learnt from her were to never hold back and keep pushing yourself in the sport,” said Innes.
“It takes a long time to progress in skiing and there are times where you lack motivation and you need to push through it whether you’re Lindsey Vonn or anyone else.”
Sportsbeat 2016