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Great Britain’s Matt Weston kicked off his skeleton World Cup campaign in perfect fashion by winning Friday’s opening race of the season in Cortina.

The 28-year-old finished 0.15 seconds ahead of Austria’s Samuel Maier in Italy after the two runs to earn his 10th World Cup gold medal.

Later on Friday, British pair Tabby Stoecker and Marcus Wyatt triumphed in the team race with a combined time of two minutes 1.23 seconds.

That left them five hundredths of a second clear of Germany’s Jacqueline Pfeifer and Axel Jungk and two tenths ahead of Austria’s Janine Flock and Maier at the venue which will host February’s Olympic Winter Games.

Stoecker, who was fifth in the women’s event just prior to the team competition, was the fastest woman in the race in a time of one minute 1.31 seconds, while Wyatt was just ninth hundredths from the fastest men’s time of the night in 59.92 seconds.

Earlier, Weston’s start times of 4.78 and 4.76 seconds were only 24th and 18th quickest in the pack, leaving him with a struggle to make the podium.

But two-time world champion Weston made up the deficit through the 16-corner track, to win with a time of one minute 53.84 seconds and claim his 21st podium finish in his past 25 races.

“I’m delighted with that win. It’s been a tricky pre-season with the injury so to come here and do that is a massive boost,” said Weston.

Great Britain are not involved this week after losing 3-2 to Japan in February’s first qualifying round.

But Leon Smith’s side gave themselves a chance of reaching next year’s season-closing event by beating Poland in an away eliminator in September.

Doubles specialists Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, who have recently been crowned year-end world number ones, believe it is imperative that Britain demonstrate they can challenge the elite in 2026.

“We’re an incredibly strong nation and sometimes we get a bit of hate because we have a Slam and the LTA is financially better off than a lot of the federations out there,” Cash told BBC Sport.

“We have a lot of very good players, even below the Davis Cup level, and I think from the standard we’ve got – both singles and doubles – [the Finals] is where we deserve to be. But you have to earn that every year.”

Britain last won the Davis Cup when the talismanic Andy Murray led them to glory in 2015, reaching the semi-finals again in 2019 before quarter-final appearances in 2021 and 2023.

This year’s bid was hampered by British number one Jack Draper, who reached a career-high fourth in the world earlier this season, being ruled out of the Japan tie.

“Injuries are a big part of it,” said Cash, “so we hope everyone can stay fit and if some of the other guys need to get called up then hopefully they can put their best performance out there.”

“It is just moments where we need to smarten up. Tomorrow is another day.

“We made it a bit easy for them at times. We had too many blips in the circuit.”

England took an early lead in front of a noisy crowd in their first match since February.

But New Zealand, who denied England a medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, fought back and led 15-14 after the first quarter with a score on the buzzer.

New Zealand extended their lead to 33-30 by half-time. Goal shooter Grace Nweke proved near unstoppable and was supported by sisters Kate and Georgia Heffernan, while England made unforced errors.

Thirlby made changes at half-time and her side were reinvigorated for the third period as they stormed back to level at 47-47.

Goal keeper Jaz Brown was impressive on her England debut with crucial steals.

However, the tourists showed their quality in the fourth quarter despite England shooter Eleanor Cardwell coming off the bench for her first appearance since suffering a knee injury which threatened her career.

The second game takes place at the same venue on Sunday and the final match is at AO Arena in Manchester on Wednesday.

England play Jamaica in December.

Great Britain’s women began their EuroBasket 2027 qualification attempt with a 85-64 victory over Switzerland in Manchester.

The hosts trailed 22-12 after the first quarter, before scoring 32 points in the second to lead by six at half-time.

Britain pulled away after the break to secure a dominant victory in their opening Group D match in the first round of qualifying.

Holly Winterburn hit a game-high 26 points for the hosts at the National Basketball Performance Centre.

Britain face Austria in Vienna on Saturday, before playing Norway in Bergen on Tuesday. The return legs will all take place in March.

The top two teams from each of the seven groups will advance to the second round of qualifying, alongside the three highest-ranked third-placed sides.

For its Southern Section Division 3 football playoff opener on Friday night against Laguna Beach, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame brought in a “ringer” assistant coach this week to get its running backs a little tougher.

Former UCLA coach DeShaun Foster dropped by to offer lessons, particularly to his sophomore stepson, Noel Washington.

“He helped a lot,” Washington said. “Having him here means a lot. He’s been making us practice a lot harder.”

And what was the impact? Washington had touchdown runs of 35, two and 32 yards to help Notre Dame (6-5) come away with a 44-28 victory and advance to a home game next week against Chino Hills. He finished with 83 yards in 11 carries.

Safety Tahj Skinner of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame is happy after getting his sixth interception of the season.

(Craig Weston)

Junior quarterback Jack Hurst of Laguna Beach and West Virginia-bound senior quarterback Wyatt Brown of Notre Dame kept making plays all night. Hurst completed 32 of 51 passes for 417 yards and four touchdowns. Brown completed 16 of 31 passes for 232 yards and one touchdown. He ran for 61 yards and one touchdown.

The most important completion for Brown came with 7:38 left on third and 17 with Notre Dame clinging to a 34-28 lead. He found sophomore Emmanuel Pullins for a 19-yard completion. Then Pullins made a 31-yard catch. It set up a 21-yard field goal by Nico Marliani for a 37-28 lead with 2:22 left.

“Huge,” Notre Dame coach Evan Yabu said of the third-down reception.

“I just saw him one on one with no safety coverage,” Brown said.

Said Pullins: “I’m ready for those situations. Before the game, I promised myself to go for the ball.”

It became a wild game in the second half because Laguna Beach (9-2) refused to go down without a fight. After Andre Gamboa picked up a fumble on a high Laguna Beach snap to score a touchdown to start the third quarter, Notre Dame looked ready to pull away with a 28-14 lead.

Hurst responded with a four-yard touchdown pass to Grant Regal. Brown ran 10 yards for a touchdown and a 34-21 Notre Dame lead. Back came Hurst, who fired a 40-yard touchdown pass to Otis Boultinghouse.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Brown said. “They throw a punch, we throw a punch back.”

In defeat, Laguna Beach made clear it will be a team to reckon with next season. Two freshmen, lineman Luke Bogdan and running back Charlie Christian, kept making plays like they will be future stars. The receiving corp made up mostly of juniors kept making catches for Hurst, who finished the season with 45 touchdown passes. The Breakers were hurt by two fumbles and an interception.

“It was a fun game,” Washington said. “They are tough and play hard.”

A mistake by Brown late in the first half helped Laguna Beach get back into the game. Brown had a pass intercepted by Will Kimball with 1:01 left on a scramble with Notre Dame leading 21-7. Hurst drove the team down to score on a four-yard touchdown reception by Kimball with four seconds left to make it 21-14 at halftime.

Two touchdown runs by Washington and a 25-yard touchdown reception by Luc Weaver accounted for the Knights’ first-half scores.

Tahj Skinner of Notre Dame picked up his sixth interception of the season. Notre Dame lost its standout nose tackle, Chris Colon, for next week’s game after being ejected for two 15-yard personal foul penalties.