March round-up: Golden glory indoors and outdoors

From a golden half-hour at the World Indoor Athletics Championships to crystal globe winners and success in short track speed skating and skateboarding, March has been a busy one for Team GB’s summer and winter athletes.

Here’s a pick of the action…

Four golds at World Indoors

Great Britain finished second in the medal table, behind only USA, after four brilliant golds in Torun.

Three of them came in very quick succession, with training partners Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter Bell landing the women’s 800m and 1500m respectively either side of Molly Caudery’s triumph in the women’s pole vault, her second world indoor crown.

Josh Kerr also occupied the top step of the podium, winning the men’s 3000m in 7:35.56, holding off the challenge of the man who beat him to 1500m Olympic gold in Paris, Cole Hocker.

Kerr has since stated his ambition to bring the mile world record back into British hands and he will attempt to etch his name into the history books at the London Diamond League this summer. Hicham El Guerrouj's current record of 3:43.13 has stood since 1999.

Trio earn crystal globe glory

Charlotte Bankes continued a season to remember as she added the snowboard cross crystal globe to the Olympic mixed team gold she landed alongside Huw Nightingale at Milano Cortina.

Her 28th career World Cup win in Mont St. Anne put the icing on the cake and she was one of three British winter stars to come out on top across the season.

Kirsty Muir banked two crystal globes, winning the freeski slopestyle and overall freeski park and pipe disciplines, while Zoe Atkin soared to her second consecutive freeski halfpipe globe in Silvaplana.

Elsewhere on the slopes, Laurie Taylor became the first Brit to qualify for the Alpine World Cup finals, climbing to a final position of 14th after clocking the fastest second run in the field.

And at the figure skating World Championships, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson narrowly missed out on the podium, finishing fourth.

Brown back on top

Not many can say they are a double world champion by the age of 17 but Sky Brown can count herself among that number.

She won the park final at the World Skateboarding Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to follow up her previous gold at the event in 2023.

"To win, to be a world champion on International Women's Day definitely means a lot,” she said.

Treacy ends drought

Niall Treacy became the first British man to occupy a short track speed skating World Championship podium for 30 years when he took 1000m bronze in Montreal.

He came close the previous day in the 1500m, finishing fifth, and hailed the ‘years of hard work’ it took to earn the hitherto elusive medal. Great Britain had not medalled at the event at all since 2017, with Nicky Gooch the last man to do so in 1996.

Treacy added: “To finally have one in my favourite distance is just huge. Now I'll have a World Championship medal for the rest of my life."

Norton makes her mark

Bethany Norton announced herself on the shooting scene in some style with gold at her first senior competition.

The 19-year-old from Hertford won the women’s skeet at the ISSF World Cup in Tangier, Morocco, setting a junior world record with her score of 28 in the process.

"I'm pretty overwhelmed,” she said. “I wasn't expecting to even qualify for a final this weekend, so to make the final and then come away with gold is just amazing."