Great Britain's domination of the rowing scene continued in Switzerland, with five medals secured on finals day at the World Cup event in Lucerne. The men's four, women's pair and women's lightweight double all prevailed, while silver was secured in the men's eight and the lightweight four won bronze.

Phillips Idowu opened his 2012 season with a victory over Christian Taylor, the American who relieved him of the world triple jump title last year, in the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Shanghai on Saturday. Competing in wet, cold conditions, Idowu jumped 17.24 metres to claim victory ahead of Taylor's American team-mate Will Claye, whose best was 17.12m. Taylor finished third with 16.96m.

British athletes have to make the most of being the stars of a home Olympics this summer, according to heptathlete Jessica Ennis.

Holly Bleasdale has another crack at the queen of the pole vault in Stockholm tonight. Two weeks ago in Bydgoszcz, Poland, the 20-year-old Briton cleared the same height as Yelena Isinbayeva, 4.68m, but was beaten by the Russian Olympic champion on countback.

Perhaps it was only to be expected, but after claiming her first British record and beating the host of stars on show to the athlete of the meeting award at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham on Saturday – Jessica Ennis and Liu Xiang amongst them – Shara Proctor was obliged to set the record straight on the subject of her Britishness.

Ennis leads home charge at Grand Prix but Kipchoge provides sting in tail

Ever since returning from the career-threatening injury which forced her to miss the Beijing Olympics, Jessica Ennis has been used to winning.

Whisper it gently but there is a looming possibility of a clash between Tatyana Chernova and Carolina Kluft at the Olympic Games in London next summer. The towering Russian who took Jessica Ennis's global heptathlon crown at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, in August versus the peerless Swede who has never been beaten in a multi-events competition as a senior athlete would be a mouth-watering prospect.

The second of Britain's great hopes for World Championship gold had to settle for silver today as Jessica Ennis failed to retain her heptathlon title in Daegu.

With due respect to Andy Vernon of Aldershot Farnham and District Athletics Club and the rest of the 5,000m field at the Aviva UK Trials and Championships yesterday, there will be tougher opposition for Mo Farah to tackle before the summer is out. Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, for one.

With a year to the opening ceremony, opinion is divided among locals living and working in the shadow of the Olympic stadium. There are those who believe they are being pushed out of the area, others who feel they are being hidden and more who declare that life as they know it is being killed off.

The world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis will compete in five events at the UK Trials and Championships later this month as she steps up preparations for the defence of her title.