Double bronze for Britain’s badminton Olympic hopefuls at European Championships while Chris Froome storms to stage victory at Tour de Romandie. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours:
Three of Britain’s badminton stars secured bronze medals at the European Championships on Saturday, as Rajiv Ouseph bagged his third medal in four years at the tournament.
London Olympian Ouseph couldn’t replicate Friday’s emphatic last eight win as Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen came through 21-11 21-16 to reach Sunday’s final.
The meeting was a replica of last year’s Championship final when the Danish top seed won gold.
Elsewhere, the doubles pairing of Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis also secured bronze as they were also defeated at the hands of Danes, losing 21-19, 21-14 to Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding.
A gold medal is still on the horizon however, as Kirsty Gilmour staged an enduring comeback to seal a place in Sunday’s final.
Second seed Gilmour will face Spain’s Carolina Marin in the final after she came from 18-16 down to beat Denmark’s Anna Thea Madsen 17-21 21-18 21-19.
Chris Froome pulled off a stunning breakaway victory on stage four at the Tour de Romandie, two days after a puncture threatened to spoil his chances of a third overall title in Switzerland.
The two-time Tour de France champion, who previously won the race in 2013 and 2014, went in to the day targeting stage victory and attacked early heading into the final 40 kilometres.
Alongside Tejay van Garderen, he opened up a decisive gap ahead of the peloton, before timing his sprint to perfection to win the queen stage by four seconds.
“It’s been a tough race so far, so to come and win the queen stage today, especially attacking so far out, is a great feeling,” he said.
“It’s nice as a team for us to get a victory here and not come away empty handed.
“I had my sights set on winning the stage, and I’m just really happy that it worked out in the end.”
Wales' Gruffudd Lewis goes into the final day of the Tour de Yorkshire as the leading British competitor after what he described as the ride of a lifetime.
The 28-year-old finished 74th on the 136.5km course from Otley to Doncaster but collected four bonus seconds in the day's breakaway to mean he leapfrogged JLT Condor's Chris Lawless in the race for top Brit.
Lewis knew he needed to stay with the peloton after being caught with ten kilometres to go and successfully rolled in with the same time as stage winner Danny van Poppel, of Team Sky, to take the jersey for leading Brit.
"I'm super, super happy, I couldn't be happier - it was the ride of my life maybe," said the man from Aberystwyth.
"I knew I'm a decent sprinter from a group like that, so I knew that the chance was there."
Elsewhere, Lizzie Armitstead has turned her attentions to Olympic gold in Rio after coming up short on home soil in the women’s race.
Riding in the rainbow jersey of the world champion and competing for the Great Britain national team, Otley-born Armitstead was part of a three-rider break that got away with about 15km to go, but was caught around the five kilometre mark and could only watch as Dutch rider Kirsten Wild sprinted to victory.
Armitstead, who crossed the line in 26th, admitted she knew that she was unlikely to be successful in a bunch sprint but is adamant the Olympic Games in Rio and the top step of the podium are still firmly in her sights.
“The gold is what I am going for, I am not going to the Olympics for the experience, or anything other than gold,” said the reigning Tour of Flanders champion.
“It was worth just giving it a go here, I wouldn’t have bet on me in a sprint so I thought at least make it an interesting race.”
The event became the most lucrative women’s race in world cycling last month and Wild picked up the €20,000 winners prize after edging out Britain’s Lucy Garner in the final bunch sprint.
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Rio-bound sailing pair Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves will take the yellow jerseys into their final day of racing at the World Cup in Hyeres on Sunday, after moving from fourth into the lead in the Nacra 17 class.
The duo picked up a 6, 3, 3 from their three races on Saturday – the second best score in the multihull fleet – to place themselves in pole position with just the double-points medal race to go.
Five crews remain in contention for the three podium spots, but Groves insists they are in a good place.
“We’re confident,” she said. “It will be good to come out fighting tomorrow.
“We came here for some more racing practice as there’s not much racing left to go before the Olympic Games, and hopefully to get a medal.”
Saxton added: “We’ll be disappointed from this position if we don’t get one.
“We weren’t aiming for an outcome coming into here, but when you’re in this position it’s nice to finish it off.”
The 470 women’s event will be another tight affair with London 2012 silver medallists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark sitting just a point behind the French series leaders heading into the final medal race.
Bryony Shaw also remains in contention for a podium finish as she starts in silver medal position in the RS:X women’s event, while Nick Dempsey will also be in the mix as he starts in third place in the men’s equivalent.
British number two Heather Watson has secured a place at the Madrid Open, despite losing her qualifying match.
Watson lost 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 to Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, but will still compete in the Spanish capital after Yulia Putintseva pulled out through illness.
Luck didn’t strike twice however as British number three Naomi Broady suffered a 3-6 6-3 6-3 defeat to Monica Puig, but Laura Robson and Johanna Konta will join Watson at the Open after using her protected ranking of 58 to enter the main draw.
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Sportsbeat 2016