Aly Bull’s canoe sprint heroics have been rewarded at the World Championships, while a bevy of Tokyo 2020 Olympians shined in Birmingham to headline the weekend action in Olympic sports.
Canoe Sprint
The ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Canada were a double delight for dual Olympian Aly Bull, claiming gold in the women’s K1 1000 and gold in the mixed K2 500 with Jackson Collins on Sunday.
“It’s been a good day. I really wanted to have a good start [in K1 1000]. I knew it was going to be long and I had to keep it strong but I also just wanted to save some energy for our mixed K2 which was a really tight turnaround,” she said.
Jackson was ecstatic with the result.
“It’s awesome, every time I think about it, I keep smiling. It’s such an amazing feeling to be able to go out there and race with Bully and now to be world champions together,” he said.
Aly’s medal haul from the World Champs is rounded out by a silver in the women’s K4 500, in a team with Ella Beere, Alexandra Clarke and Yale Steinpreis.
Jean van der Westhuyzen’s solo effort in the men’s K1 500 earned silver. He also teamed up with fellow Olympic champion Tom Green in the men’s K2 500 and finished with the bronze medal.
Cycling – Road & Track
Georgia Baker is the owner of three gold medals from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games after her latest accomplishment in the women’s road race.
The switch from track cycling (gold in the women’s 25km points race and women’s 4000m team pursuit) to road cycling went without a hitch, as the 27-year-old dual Olympian completed a dream Games.
She received great support from her cycling teammates on the 112-kilometre course in Birmingham’s south, and Sarah Roy also found her way onto the podium for bronze.
Athletics
Kelsey-Lee Barber has followed up her javelin gold at the World Championships two weeks ago with more gold at the Commonwealth Games, this time being pushed by another Aussie in Mackenzie Little.
Kelsey-Lee’s sixth and final throw (64.43m) propelled her to Commonwealth gold, with Mackenzie settling for silver after throwing a Personal Best 64.27 metres.
In the men’s 1500m Oliver Hoare put on a finish for the ages, as he entered the final straight in fourth but powered past world champion Jake Wightman (SCO) and Kenyans Timothy Cheruiyot and Abel Kipsang to snatch gold.
He’s the first Aussie man since Herb Elliott in 1958 to win 1500m gold at the Comm Games.
Kurtis Marschall became a back-to-back Commonwealth champion in the men's pole vault, the same feat achieved by Olympic champion pole vaulter Steve Hooker.
In Birmingham Kurtis cleared 5.70m for the gold, then lifted the bar to 5.81m for one shot at beating Steve's 5.80m mark.
Peter Bol has followed up his fourth-place finish in the 800m at Tokyo 2020 with a silver medal in Birmingham.
In a time of 1:47.66 the 28-year-old was 0.14 of a second off gold medallist Wyclife Kinyamal (KEN), which earned Peter his first international medal.
Cedric Dubler has backed up the bronze medal he won at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games with another in the men’s decathlon, with Aussie Daniel Golubovic landing silver.
Working off a 12-day turnaround from finishing the decathlon at the World Athletics Championships, they showed great perseverance to be highly competitive in the 10 track and field events.
Table Tennis
Yangzi Liu created history on Sunday in becoming the first Australian woman to win a singles table tennis medal at the Olympics, World Championships or Commonwealth Games.
It was a hard-earned bronze medal for the 20-year-old on her Comm Games debut, coming from a 4-3 victory in the bronze medal match against Sreeja Akula from India.
Diving
Australian divers took out four gold medals in Birmingham on the weekend, adding to Australia’s impressive medal tally from the pool at the Commonwealth Games.
On Saturday Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith became Commonwealth champions in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard final.
Then 14-year-old Charli Petrov in tandem with Melissa Wu claimed gold on the women’s synchronised 10m platform.
More gold was in store on Sunday for Maddison on the women’s 3m springboard and for Cassiel Rousseau on the 10m platform.
Beach Volleyball
Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett defeated Canada in a tight men’s gold medal match 17-21 21-17 20-18 to claim the Commonwealth title.
Chris and Paul saved two match points to beat Sam Schachter and Daniel Dearing. For Chris, this success adds to the gold he won at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar had a repeat of their 2018 Comm Games result, finishing with silver in a rematch of the 2018 Comm Games final.
Boxing
Adelaide’s Callum Peters put up an excellent fight in the middleweight division to earn silver on his Comm Games debut. The 19-year-old was part of a highly entertaining gold medal bout against Scotland’s Sam Hickey, which the judges ruled on with a 3-2 points decision.
Then 38-year-old Kaye Scott proved once again that age is no barrier in sport as she too claimed a silver medal for her efforts in the light middleweight division.
Hockey
The Hockeyroos will return home with silver as the Commonwealth Games gold medal match went the way of the host nation.
England finished the tournament with a 2-1 win over the Aussies, with a gallant Hockeyroos unable to recover from a 2-0 first-half deficit. Rosie Malone found the back of the net for Australia in the final minute.
The Commonwealth Games ends a two-month road trip for the Hockeyroos, which produced a bronze medal at the World Champs and silver in Birmingham.
Tonight it's the Kookaburras that have their shot at a seventh consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medal against India from 9:30pm AEST live and free on Channel Seven and 7plus.
Tennis
At the site Nick Kyrgios last won an ATP singles title three years ago, he's been crowned an Open champion once again in Washington.
He got it done 6-4 6-3 in the final against Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka. Nick only dropped three points on serve for the entire match and didn't lose a service game throughout the entire tournament.
Shortly after in the doubles final with Jack Sock, the pair defeated Ivan Dodig (CRO) and Austin Krajicek (USA) 7-5 6-4.
It’s another encouraging result for Nick, who has won a doubles title in back-to-back weeks, as he builds for a US Open run at the end of this month.
Equestrian
London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic dressage rider Lyndal Oatley has produced her best ever World Championships score at a Grand Prix in Herning, Denmark on Sunday.
She scored 72.189% with Eros the horse, and together they have qualified as part of the top 30 to compete in the Grand Prix special.
While in teams competition Tokyo 2020 debutant Simone Pearce, riding Fiderdance, brought home the Australian Dressage Team’s performance at the Grand Prix – scoring 73.463%.
Overall the Team placed 8th in the 19-country competition.
Golf
Minjee Lee has finished on a tie for fourth at -7 in the women’s British Open in Scotland, three shots back of the winner Ashleigh Buhai (RSA). Aussie Steph Kyriacou finished a further two shots back to be in a tie for seventh.
Buhai had a comfortable lead heading into the final day but a shock +4 final round from her, compared to Minjee’s final round -2, made for an exciting finish.
The result consolidates Minjee’s position as the second-best ranked LPGA golfer in the world and earned her the Major player of the year award for having the most outstanding record across all five Majors in the LPGA season.
Surfing
The first Australian Surf Champions of 2022 have been anointed at North Haven Beach in New South Wales, as veterans Freya Prumm and Reef Heazlewood became national champions for the first time.
Reef finished well clear (15.5 points) of runner up Micah Margieson (11.65), and on the women's side Freya (12.4) got the better of Charli Hurst (11.35).
