WORLD OF SPORT

Chris Thompson has praised the breakthrough performances of scottish athletes like Andrew Butchart and Callum hawkins as he prepares to join them in the British team for this weekend’s European Cross Country Championships in Chia, italy. The English long-distance runner has been impressed by their emergence, with Butchart finishing sixth in the 5,000metres final at the rio olympics and hawkins ninth in the marathon. ‘There’s a generation coming through who are not content to be second best,’ said Thompson. ‘i am seeing scottish athletes all over the place step up their levels.’ GRAHAM SWANN

TWO-TIME Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones could be tempted to make the switch to mixed martial arts. The 23-year-old is aiming to add to her gold medals from London 2012 and Rio 2016 by claiming a historic hat-trick at Tokyo 2020. But Jones told the BBC: ‘It’s tempting to think, “What else is out there?”, and in MMA people earn millions!’

sCoTs snooker player ross muir made a maximum break in qualifying for the German masters yesterday — just two minutes after England’s Ali Carter did likewise. Both won their respective matches in Barnsley and shared a rolling prize pot of £1,000 reserved for 147 breaks, scooping £500 apiece for their feats.