at sacked. so it's a difficult time at the club. their form's sacked. so it's a difficult time at the club. theirform's not sacked. so it's a difficult time at the club. their form's not great. sacked. so it's a difficult time at the club. theirform's not great. he carries a lot of weight. like most good players he's able to compartalise that at northampton. athlete beth potter has made team scotland history by being selected in two different sports at the same commonwealth games. potter has joined the triathlon training squad of olympic gold and silver medallists alistair and johnny brownlee in addition to athletics. rhona mcleod can tell us more. piling on the miles, in the pool, but also on the bike and running. three sports in one day are a vast change for this scots athlete. commentator: beth potter trying to make it. but oh! commentator: beth potter trying to make it. but 0h! beth potter is best known having competed in commonwealth games and olympic games 10,000 metres. but at the start of the year she took a gamble. she quit herjob and relocated to leeds to train with the very top triathletes in britain. such is the calibre of

her squad at leeds, the brownlee brothers are now new training partners. what tempted herfrom track to triathlon? i think it started in 2012, when i watched the boys race in london. i got a real buzz after that. but i still felt like i wanted to compete in a home games in glasgow at the commonwealth games in glasgow at the commonwealth games and try for the olympics as well. i did that and i think was after rio i was like, i've kind of done everything i've wanted to do in athletics. potter had been a strong junior swimmer, but with little cycling experience, the transition was a tall order. it was a bit of an ambitious goal i set last year. some people thought, you're talking on a lot there. but yeah, i had the belief that i could do it. so yeah, i'm looking forward to getting out there in australia and showing them what triathletes are made of. and one of the world's very best triathletes has respect for potter

as she rises to this new challenge. not only did she have a job and a life, she was living in london, her running had been pretty successful. she had been to the olympic games in rio. i think she's done well. she's basically a year in. she's,a long way in that year. but she's got quite a long way to go as well. it's changed to a completely new sport and to get through a season like she's done this year, which is representing britain at the world championships in athletics, but still managed to transfer to becoming a good triathlete it's really amazing. with miles ahead on the road, poll and track, potter will be hoping for a smooth ride all the way to the gold coast. andy murray has pulled out of the brisbane international and says he may need surgery on a persistent hip injury. he will make a decision on

whether he competes in the australian open by the weekend. that's all from sportsday. we'll have more throughout the evening, including altonight‘s premier league action, but for the moment, including altonight‘s premier league action, but forthe moment, it's goodbye for now. you're watching bbc news. now the public is being urged to think carefully before dialling 999, after the north—east ambulance service said it's reached its highest level of alert and cannot cope with the demand. managers say the christmas and new year period have been very difficult. between the 23 december and1 difficult. between the 23 december and 1 january, there difficult. between the 23 december and 1january, there were more than 40,000 calls to the nhs111 service, an increase of 43% compared to the same time last year. there have been around 16,000999 calls, up by nearly 7% on last year's festive period. let's speak to our correspondent at

the ambulance service headquarters in newcastle. sharon, the authorities where you are are saying people, if they need to take anyone who is ill to hospital, they've got to use their own cars. well, i don't think in every case. but if you can get yourself to hospital, they're saying, please do. get somebody else to get you otherwise you could be waiting several hours, especially for non—urgent cases, but even urgent cases are going to suffer long waits, because the priority is really going to be on reaching those critically ill, those patients who have got some kind of life threatening illness. they're the pa rkts threatening illness. they're the parkts they're focussing on. behind me we have call takers and ambulance dispatchers dealing with thousands of calls every day. it's an unprecedented level of pressure. 30% rise in calls. on boxing day alone,

they took 7,000 999 and 111 calls. you might have to get yourself to hospital. what they say initially, if you want to call an ambulance, think about perhaps using a pharmacist or contacting your gp or dialling 111 in the first instance. another problem they've had here is the paramedics are dealing with a lot of winter illnesses. they're closing wards in hospitals but they're also taking out the paramedics because they're ill. so ina way, paramedics because they're ill. so in a way, it's been a perfect storm. now this ambulance trust is under extreme pressure. sharon, thank you. strong winds of up to 80mph are expected to hit parts of the uk tonight. storm eleanor will reach the country. the met office has upgraded the threat level from yellow to amber across northern england, northern ireland and south—west scotland and disruption could be caused to transport and power supplies. becky joins us now power supplies.

beckyjoins us now from blackpool with the latest. how bad could it get where you are? well, it's already pretty unpleasant, as you can probably see, from where i'm standing on the seafront. but where expecting the isle of man to take the brunt of storm eleanor first, expecting the isle of man to take the brunt of storm eleanorfirst, in this part of the country at least. the isle of man is expecting winds of 63mph or so. that should hit about 10pm. of 63mph or so. that should hit about10pm. a of 63mph or so. that should hit about 10pm. a couple of hours later we'll find those strong winds hitting this part of the world, the north west coast, where we have warnings for cumbria and lancashire in terms of wind speeds here, we're looking at mid—sos to the low 60smph across this region. of course, there's flooding to bear in mind as well. strong winds, heavy rain plus high tides are combining to make conditions really difficult overnight and through into thursday morning. we should expect, according to the environment agency, conditions to be like they were in the storm of january 2014. then we did seea the storm of january 2014. then we did see a great deal of disruption.

we've had flood warnings, that's where flooding is expected for much of the cumbria and north lancashire coastline, and morecambe bay. cumbria have said they're closing roads. as well, we'll see disruption to the isle of man ferry, which is crucial for people that need transport to get home in that direction. another point is that the environment agency have said in addition to the usual precautions you might expect about travelling and looking out for each other, no storm selfies. this has become a modern phenomenon, people going out in extreme weather conditions and trying to take pictures of themselves. the environment agency are warning people not to do that. it can be really dangerous. the next few hours will be very difficult conditions here. 0k, conditions here. ok, becky, thank you. let's get the latest on storm

eleanor and the rest of the weather news. hi there. you know the storm's made la ndfall hi there. you know the storm's made landfall now in ireland and gusts have been approaching 87mph. that gives us an indication of the kind of winds we could see across northern parts of the country, northern ireland into the isle of man and the north of england too. 70 to 90mph in some exposed areas. it's quite a large area of gale—force winds. even though the centre of eleanor will be moving across northern parts of the uk, this is the centre of the storm, the effects will be felt as far south as the south coast of england, where gusts of 70 maybe even 80mph could be real aislesed as well. these winds have been upped to 90mph across the irish sea. 60mph inland and some of the winds on the south coast up to 70 or 80mph. that's on really exposed coasts. even 50, 60 inland is enough to cause problems. it's going to be

blowing very hard inland as well through tomorrow morning's rush hour in the afternoon, later in the day, those wind will ease. with that will come a mixture of lots of showers, bit of sunshine in between and then more wet and windy weather is expected wednesday night into thursday. i think a swathe of further gales expected across southern parts of the uk. so once again, the worst of the winds tonight, at least, from just about the east of northern ireland, through the irish sea, through here and through northern parts of england. but the effects of the storm will be felt across a much, much larger area. damage disruption even much larger area. damage disruption eve n a cross much larger area. damage disruption even across the south as well. you're watching beyond 100 days. six days of protests, several dead and now iran's supreme leader blames foreign countries for the unrest at home. demonstrators want better economic conditions and less engagement abroad — it's a sentiment we've heard around the world. the demonstrators are overwhelmingly young and frustrated at financial

hardship and social repression. they're up against a government determined to stop them. donald trump is back in the white house — he has a packed agenda at home and multiple crises abroad. does he have a game plan for 2018? also on the programme... time's up, the new campaign sponsored by the women of hollywood, which vows to stamp out harassment and gender inequality. and if you are feeling bookish in these dark months of the year —