CHRIS MEARS: Rio has always been there driving me to train harder and to compete as well as I can. It’s really pushed me. Now it’s becoming less of a dream and more of a reality.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m playing out in Spain but Rio still feels quite far away. You kind of forget things over here but once we get back in camp with the British team it will all sink in.

I'm really looking forward to the Olympics - and it's crazy how quickly it's coming around - but at the moment I'm trying just to focus on the European Championships.

Training for the Olympic Games is going great off the back of a successful European Championships last month, it was important to make an impact there.

The 29-year-old Brit Greg Rutherford, also the reigning world and European champion, posted a season best of 8.31metres in the second round to dominate the event.

Since the announcement of our Wheelchair Basketball team for the Paralympics in Rio, I’ve been the subject of some of the group’s jokes.

Once the medals started coming in I wanted to be that person to stand on the podium – the success of the others really spurred me on. For every member of the track team to win a medal was unbelievable.

Britain has a stable of young sprinters that is the envy of the world, and Sportsmail has brought them together for a stunning photoshoot.

Veronika Didusenko, 24, has launched legal action in London claiming organisers are in breach of the Equalities Act 2010 and has demanded they change their 'outdated' entry criteria.

There was an excellent moment three months ago, when the problem which now threatens the notion of a Premier League title race was characterised by Pep Guardiola as a test of his cognitive skills.

Three-year-old Sasha Soboleva (pictured left), was shot in the head on the back seat of his father's car (pictured top right) during a failed assassination attempt in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Rep. Devin Nunes was in touch with Rudy Giuliani and his indicted associate Lev Parnas as they schemed to get the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine removed.

The Center for Political Beauty (ZPS), which is known for its provocative stunts, installed an urn outside the Reichstag Building in Berlin on Monday, calling it a 'pillar of resistance.'

Gennady Andreev, 39, and his accomplice Ruslan Klemenchuk, 36, ambushed businessman Yury Beznischenko, 44, and his lover Alla Vitryak, 40, in a forest in Ukraine to steal their VW Touareg.

Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney 'really wants' to testify during a Senate impeachment trial, although the White House will not yet confirm his participation.

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert claimed Democrats have blocked witnesses who might undercut their theories. He named seven during a hearing, including a man widely thought to be the whistle-blower.

The elegant animal was spotted by a fan of the Maggie May singer, Dmitry Ivanov, as he drove from Keflavik to Vik in Iceland. He then stopped to take photographs of the horse.

The Russian leader, 67, was filmed leaving the bathroom in Paris's Elysee Palace alongside six armed bodyguards. Putin was in Paris for a summit to discuss a ceasefire with Ukraine.

The House Judiciary Committee's second consecutive day of impeachment hearings abruptly ended Thursday night and will resume 10am Friday morning.

Rep. Doug Collins,who doubles as a military chaplain, unloaded on former Democratic presidential candidate Eric Swallwell calling his claims about Ukraine deaths a 'load of hogwash.'

Rudy Giuliani detailed Tuesday that he felt it was necessary for Marie Yovanovitch to be prematurely removed from her post because she was enabling Ukrainian corruption.

As an impeachment vote loomed, Schiff demanded Pence's office declassify documents that he claims could show the vice president knee-deep in the Ukraine scandal that has brought Trump to the brink.

Rudy Giuliani (right), President Trump's personal attorney, slammed George Soros (left) by questioning his Judaism - even though the Hungarian-born billionaire is a Holocaust survivor.

Rudy Giuliani attended midnight mass at the Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral after he slammed liberal financier George Soros by questioning his Judaism.

Biden, 49, was seen with his pregnant wife Melissa, 32, were seen on Thursday in The Grove in Los Angeles amid a firestorm of allegations from Lunden Roberts.

The US wants Ukraine to extradite Craig Lang (left), 29, so that he could face trial in Florida for his role in the murders of Serafin 'Danny' Lorenzo Jr (top right), 53, and Deana K. Lorenzo (bottom right), 50.

Judge Don McSpadden announced he was recusing himself at 10.20am. It came hours after Joel Caplan filed a witness statement from ex Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin.

Animal rights activists rescued the desperate animals after a tip off in the capital Kiev.

For just over a year, former baker Ursula Martin, 39, from Derbyshire, has been walking by herself from Ukraine back to the UK while fundraising for Target Ovarian Cancer.

The Russian president watched Kalibr cruise missiles and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles being launched from the deck of the Marshal Ustinov cruiser off the coast of Moscow-annexed Crimea.

Rep. Jerry Nadler said Wednesday morning that Democrats are ready for Senate Republicans to call former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter as an impeachment witness.

Despite Adam Schiff leading the House impeachment inquiry into US President Trump allegedly withholding aid from Ukraine, not one of the three contestants recognised him.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says AG Bill Barr is 'implicated' in testimony by Lev Parnas about the Ukraine affair, but that Barr wouldn't appoint a special prosecutor.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the new information should be evaluated, three days after messages revealed Trump allies talking about the physical location of a U.S. ambassador.

Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde said he was communicating with another man about 'intel' on U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, even as he dismissed it.

House Democrats released the messages in a document dump on Friday, showing Parnas texting with Derek Harvey, a top Nunes aide.

Anthony de Caluwe admitted to texting GOP congressional candidate Robert Hyde about the location of Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch after initially denying involvement.

Mariia Bilenka, 22, from Kiev in Ukraine, had clear skin in autumn 2019 but her skin broke out in acne when she moved to Germany and started working as an au pair away from her family.

House impeachment managers wrote White House counsel Cipollone just hours before Trump's trial was set to begin to tell him he may be a 'material witness' to the trial.

Arsenal have looked to Shakhtar Donetsk defender Mykola Matviyenko to shore up their leaky back four as the Ukrainian's agent confirms an approach from the Premier League club.

Dmitry Khaladzhi, 40, has lifted a 55-stone cow for more a minute near Moscow. The powerlifter, of Ukraine, claims to hold 63 Guinness World Records.

Donald Trump has been caught on tape appearing to order the firing of then-Ambassador to the Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. 'Get rid of her!' he appears to say.

'I am not a fan of that ambassador,' Trump said in an interview with Fox News defending his actions on Friday. 'She wouldn't put my picture up, she was an Obama appointee I believe.'

US Senators on both sides of the aisle were surprised the chamber's spectator gallery was at least half-empty throughout the first week on President Donald Trump's ongoing impeachment trial.

The video was made during a fundraiser dinner on April 30, 2018 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC and released on Saturday by an attorney for Lev Parnas,

Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani tore into former security advisor John Bolton as a 'swamp creature' and a 'back stabber' as senators weigh calling Bolton as a witness.

John Bolton warned the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee shortly after his departure in September that former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch's ousting was 'improper.'

Donald Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz was under fire for saying if the president does things that will help him get elected 'in the public interest' it isn't impeachable.

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, has announced her retirement from the State Department on Friday evening. She was a key witness in the impeachment inquiry.

The Texas senator, 49, was seen mimicking the clap shortly as he spoke with other Republican, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, before the vote was called around 5 pm.