WORLD OF SPORT

● GREAT BRITAIN will take smaller squads to future championships in a major selection overhaul designed to prioritise potential medallists. UK Athletics chief executive Jack Buckner says he wants to be more ruthless when picking teams for this summer’s World Championships and next year’s Olympics, believing the old system was too soft. Team GB did not win a single gold medal in track and field at Tokyo 2020 for the first time at a Games since Atlanta 1996. Speaking ahead of this week’s European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Buckner said: ‘We will be moving towards a philosophy more about performance. It will have a slightly sharper edge. You need to focus on the big hitters.’

● CAM NORRIE is back up to No 12 in the world tennis rankings, but like most others he stands in the shadow of Novak Djokovic’s latest towering achievement. Yesterday the Serb, 35, celebrated his 378th overall week as world No 1, surpassing Steffi Graf’s record. Djokovic’s feat is all the more remarkable as it comes at a time when he has been barred from competing in America due to being unvaccinated, meaning that he has only 14 tournaments contributing to his standing over the past year. British No 1 Norrie (above) is a perennial overachiever and demonstrated that again in Sunday’s Rio Open final to beat US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz.

● BRITISH teenager Mia Brookes yesterday became snowboarding’s youngest world champion after capping a magnificent display in Bakuriani, Georgia with a milestone move. The 16-year-old is Britain’s first world slopestyle gold medallist and landed the first CAB 1440 double grab in a women’s competition in her first World Championships. Brookes, who sealed gold with her penultimate run, said: ‘I feel like I’m going to cry. I’ve never been so happy in my life. I can’t even speak.’

She has been snowboarding since she was 18 months old and was scouted by GB Snowsport coaches aged 10.