‘That’s my son – he’s the world champion’

Team GB’s Jake Wightman won 1500m gold at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon — Team GB’s Jake Wightman won 1500m gold in Oregon

(Image credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images for World Athletics)

Jake Wightman became the United Kingdom’s first 1500m world title winner in nearly 40 years this week – as his father, a former athlete himself, commentated on the race, at a stadium in Oregon. Wightman, 28, was considered such an outsider in the race that UK Athletics hadn’t left time in his schedule for the medal ceremony. As the small British contingent at the World Championships began celebrating, the stadium cameras cut to the stadium announcer. “That’s my son,” Geoff Wightman told the crowd. “I coach him. And he’s the world champion.”

Hi-tech recycling for tatty charity shop clothes

Huge quantities of the clothes donated to charity shops are too tatty to sell; now the Salvation Army is planning to use a hi-tech scanner to ensure that as many of them as possible are recycled instead. The machine uses infrared to sort the garments into wool, cotton, polyester and viscose. The wool items can then be sent to a textiles mill in Huddersfield, to be turned back into fresh yarn, and the aim is that the rest of the fabrics will be recycled by factories in Europe.

Bison are roaming the British countryside for the first time since the Ice Age, thanks to a rewilding project in Kent. The three mammals have been sent over from Europe to help revitalise an ancient woodland. The hope is that the bison, which were bred from zoo herds, will crash through the forest and allow a wider variety of species to thrive. Paul Whitfield, of the Wildwood Trust, said their release had been “emotional”. “They came out, they were relaxed, had a snack, and then they [went] into the woods to do their thing.”

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