Olympic team pursuit champion Dani King looking forward to concentrating all her efforts on the road leading up to Rio, while Mark Cavendish signs to new team. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Olympic team pursuit champion Dani King admits all her efforts will be going on proving her worth on the road in the run up to Rio 2016.
This week the 24-year-old re-signed for road team Wiggle Honda for another year, signalling her intent to concentrate solely on the road.
Three years ago she won Olympic gold at London 2012 alongside Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell Shand but has opted not to try and defend her title.
"I'm excited looking forward to the road now," said King, who has been left out of British Cycling's track plans for Rio 2016.
"It's (signing up for another year with Wiggle Honda) exciting going forward for my personal ambitions as well as getting in the team for Rio.
"I'm going to meet with the selectors in the winter to make sure I'm completely clear in my mind what they're looking for."
British cyclist Mark Cavendish has brought an end to three years of racing for Etixx-Quick-Step after joining MTN-Qhebeka.
The 26-year-old has opted to join the South African team, who will be known as Team Dimension Data from next year.
The Manxman is currently sidelined followed surgery on a shoulder injury but has still had a successful season, including winning his 26th Tour de France stage this summer.
"It's fair to say that most of the peloton has seen how incredible the team raced this year," said Cavendish, who added the riding for a "greater cause in the Qhubeka charity" was "one of the biggest incentives.”
Johanna Konta extended her run of form as she made the last 16 at the Wuhan Open in China following an injury to Victoria Azarenka.
The 24-year-old had been leading 6-4 1-0 when the former world number one decided to withdraw.
She plays Romanian top seed Simona Halep in round three after the world number two beat Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Currently ranked number 66 in the world, Konta will replace Heather Watson as the British number one next week, although she played down the significance of the swap.
"It's obviously nice to hear but it's not something that I actively think about or spend much time on to be honest," said Konta, who could break the top 50 with another win on Wednesday.
"I'm still in this tournament, I've got my next match tomorrow and that's my main focus right now.
"I am really just trying to stay very present. I'm in China right now. We'll see what it's like when I go home."
Elsewhere in China Britain’s male number two Aljaz Bedene saw off Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets to reach the second round of the Shenzhen Open.
Great Britain women will play Argentina, China and Australia in their pool games at this year’s hockey World League Final after the tournament schedule was confirmed.
The competition in Rosario from December 5-12 brings together eight of the world’s best national women’s hockey teams, with all the sides taking part already qualified for Rio 2016.
Reigning Olympic and world champions the Netherlands will be looking to defend their title.
England men and women’s teams placed 20th and 22nd respectively at the table tennis European Championships in Russia.
England men ended their team event with a 3-0 defeat to Italy in Ekaterinburg while Maria Tsaptsinos won two matches on the day as the women sealed a 22nd-place finish with a 3-2 win over the same country.
“As a team, I don’t think we did too badly," Tsaptsinos told Table Tennis England. "Obviously losing to Greece in the group wasn’t ideal but beating Belgium and Finland were good wins and when we played Slovenia after that we were very unlucky because a couple of five-setters could have gone either way and we just missed out on winning."
Sportsbeat 2015