Rugby 7s

The 2021-22 World Rugby Sevens Series will forever be remembered in Australian history, with both the men’s and women’s sides becoming champions.

The men’s team entered the ninth and final leg of the series in Los Angeles this weekend, sitting second in the standings behind South Africa.

The Aussies faced unique circumstances after finishing fourth at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games a month ago, while also having not played on the Rugby Sevens World Series since May.

Going into the LA 7s bronze medal match – they had to beat Samoa to secure the series title. Never before had the Aussie men won the world series in their 22-year history.

Corey Toole scored six tries in Los Angeles and got Australia's first in the bronze medal match, which was a quick response to a Samoa try for a 7-7 early first-half score.

Henry Paterson seized on a loose ball while others hesitated to extend Australia’s first-half lead to 14-7. Maurice Longbottom came up with a clutch one-on-one defensive tackle in space at the end of the half to protect Australia’s lead.

Samoa cracked again in the second half after conceding seven-straight penalties as Dietrich Roache, the runaway 2021-22 series top scorer with 343 points, slipped through the defence on a set play to complete their 21-7 victory.

The team, captained by Nick Malouf, remained composed in the final moments and burst into celebrations at full-time.

Consistency was the key to the Aussie men winning the world series, as they were the winners, runners-up or third place at six of the nine events.

Australia’s women’s team won four of the six events this season to hoist the champions’ trophy back in May.

Paddle

Jess Fox has come away with a swag of medals from the latest ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Pau, France.

She won her fourth consecutive women’s K1 gold medal, secured more gold in the women’s extreme slalom and took bronze in the women’s C1.

“I’m really pleased to win here in Pau, it’s such a great course and I have great memories here,” Jess said.

Her experience on the course, having previously won World Cup gold (2021) and silver (2016) in Pau, as well as World Championships gold in 2017, came to the forefront, as she was also the fastest K1 qualifier from the semi-final.

While in the extreme slalom Jess, a two-time extreme slalom world champion, claimed the win after a big weekend of competition.

"It was my third event (at the World Cup) and I was quite exhausted, so I was so pleased to take the win today," she said.

The action shifts to Spain for the final World Cup event of the season from 2-4 September.

Swimming

18-year-old Olympic champion Mollie O’Callaghan has been crowned Olympic Swimmer of the Year, the top honour at the 2022 Swimming Australia awards.

The nominees included Kaylee McKeown, Zac Stubblety-Cook and Elijah Winnington – but Mollie claimed the award on the back of winning 13 medals across the FINA World Championships and Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

She also became the youngest women’s 100m freestyle world champion in 30 years and was a member of two World Record breaking relay teams.

Mollie’s coach, Dean Boxall, was crowned both Olympic and Youth Coach of the Year.

Nick Sloman earned Open Water Swimmer of the Year honours after securing the 5km/10km double at the Australian Championships, before an impressive three-race campaign at the Open Water World Championships in Budapest in June.

The awards night also marked the launch of the Swimming Australia Hall of Fame. Five Olympians made up the inaugural inductees – Fred Lane, Fanny Durack, Dawn Fraser, Shane Gould and Ian Thorpe.

Paralympic Swimmer of the Year went to Rowan Crothers for becoming the fastest male freestyle sprinter with a disability in the world, securing the 50m/100m double at the World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal.

Cycling

Australia’s Remy Meier-Smith has taken silver from the 2022 UCI Junior Mountain Bike World Championships from the men’s downhill event in France.

While Sasha Kim, competing at his first world championships, had a strong showing to finish sixth overall.

In the women’s downhill Elise Empey was the best of the Australians, finishing fifth.

Read more here.

Over in Israel at the 2022 UCI Junior Track World Championships, Ryan Elliott claimed silver in the men’s sprint.

Ryan comes away with gold and silver from the championships, after becoming a world champion in the men’s team sprint days prior.

Tennis

Daria Saville has ended her WTA singles final appearance drought of nearly five years in Canada. She didn’t drop a set on her way to the final, and once in the final she gave world no.10 Daria Kasatkina (RUS) a big test, eventually losing 6-4 6-4.

The breakthrough tournament for Daria sees her climb into the world’s top 60 ranked singles players for the first time since 2019.

Read more here.