It was the conclusion of an intense fortnight at Wimbledon for our Aussies with the finals over the weekend, while Brooke Stratton leaped to better her national long jump record originally set six years and four months ago, ahead of the upcoming World Championships.
Tennis
Olympian Max Purcell and partner Matthew Ebden became Australia first men’s doubles champions at Wimbledon in 22 years taking the title in four-hour thriller, which was decided in a fifth set tiebreak.
The duo came into the tournament as 14th seeds, taking their maiden Grand Slam title together, just six months after reaching their first Grand Slam final at the Australian Open in January.
In the mixed doubles, five-time Olympian Samantha Stosur reached her 14th Grand Slam doubles final, partnering with Ebden once again. Unfortunately, the pair fell short in their pursuit to a maiden title together, conceding straight sets to pair Karwczyk/Skupski.
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Rowing
It was another weekend of medals for our rowers at the third World Cup of the season in Lucerne, Switzerland. The Australian Rowing team came away from a dramatic weekend with an impressive haul, including a gold medal finish from the Women’s Eight. Five silver medals were won produced in the Men’s pairs, double, four and eight, as well as in the women’s single for Tara Rigney. The gold medal winning women’s eight, included fitted with three Tokyo Olympians in Bronwyn Cox, Georgina Rowe and Giorgia Patten, managed to fend off competitors Romania and Canada to take the win.
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Beach Volleyball
Tokyo silver medal duo Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy took the bronze medal at the Gstaad Beach Volleyball Pro Tour Elite 16 event overnight. The pair progressed to the semi-finals where they went down to Brazil and were forced into a clash against Latvia for a place on the podium. Artacho del Solar and Clancy were pushed to three sets, taking the decider 15-9 to bring home the bronze.
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Athletics
Dual Olympic long jumper Brooke Stratton has jumped a personal best in Chula Vista, USA over the weekend. Stratton was already the Australian and Oceania record holder in the women’s long jump, but six years later bettered her previous record by 8cm to reach 7.13m. Her performance over the weekend was a season-best jump, by over half a metre.
The Australian contingent for the 2022 World Championships to be held in Oregon this upcoming weekend has been confirmed, with the final team count coming in at 64 athletes, the largest Aussie team to be sent to an international athletics meet.
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Triathlon
Tokyo debutant Matthew Hause tasted the podium twice this weekend at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Hamburg, Germany. He crossed the finish line of the elite men’s category on Saturday in second place, in a time of 53:13, just three seconds behind winner Hayden Wilde from New Zealand.
Hauser regrouped for Sunday’s Mixed Relay event as the third leg of the four-person race, not only delivering the fastest split of the team, but of any other competitor in the mixed relay event. Australia finished in second place, behind Great Britain and ahead of Germany.
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