Liam Pitchford puts in an encouraging performance against the top seed at the table tennis European Championships while Olympic champion Katherine Grainger identifies room for improvement. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Liam Pitchford made sure to stretch top seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov to his limits before eventually losing out to the German in the last 32 of the European Championships.
Playing the European number one for the first time, 19th seed Pitchford did not look out of place, with a number of impressive shots.
However Ovtcharov eventually came through, winning the last two sets to take the match 4-2.
It brought an end to an encouraging run from Pitchford who had beaten Tomas Polansky 4-1 earlier to set up his last 16 clash.
The 22-year-old also teamed up with Paul Drinkhall in the men’s doubles, winning their first match at the last 32 stage against French duo Stephane Ouaiche and Tristan Flore.
The 12th seeds then took on fourth seeds Par Gerell and Jon Persson in what turned into a tight and entertaining match.
Match points were traded on both sides before the Swedes eventually took their chance to go through to the quarter-finals with a 3-2 victory.
Olympic champion Katherine Grainger admits it's all about the bigger picture after admitting her recent performances have not been fast enough.
Grainger finally got her hands on an Olympic gold medal at London 2012 when she and partner Anna Watkins won the double sculls title.
She then took a two-year sabbatical from the sport before announcing her return in September 2014, with the intention of trying to go for Rio.
This time partnered with Vicky Thornley, Grainger won bronze at the European Championships in Poznan in 2015 although they failed to win a medal at last month's World Championships in France.
And Grainger, who will be 40 by the time of the Games next year, knows there is still plenty of room for improvement if she wants to get back to her previous level.
"At the moment I am not fast enough, I'm not good enough. But absolutely it's about going to win in Rio," she said.
"I didn't win a medal at the World Championships so I'm not yet where I need to be.
"But it was always a two-year plan and project, and I'm at the half-way point now.
"You shouldn't be in at this level unless you are in it to win it. If I didn't still have the hunger and desire then I wouldn't do it."
Rajiv Ouseph says he is honoured to be named Team Derby captain for the upcoming National Badminton League season after leading his side to glory in the competition's inaugural campaign last term.
Ouseph was the skipper in a tense final that saw Derby win 3-2 against Loughborough Sport – the Commonwealth medallist winning his match against Henri Hurskainen en route.
This time around Team Derby will be looking for more success with the competition getting underway on November 2 but, after seeing several teams strengthen their ranks, Ouseph is sure it will be no easy feat.
"I'm Team Derby captain again this year," said Ouseph, who is chasing Olympic qualification this year.
"I was really proud to be asked last season to be the captain, I think probably age had something to do with it having had a few experiences of international tournaments and stuff like that.
"It was for me to pass on a little bit of experience for the younger players. When there is a little bit of pressure on them, give them a word or two here and there.
"It has been a busy summer. We're on the Olympic qualifying year at the moment so we've had a lot of tournaments. We've been to Asia three or four times.
"I've had some good results, I've had a couple of quarter finals of the Superseries tournaments which is good going.
"At the moment I'm in a qualifying position for the Olympics so if I can maintain that I'll be very happy with that.”
Sportsbeat 2015