Olympic champion Keegan Palmer and Arisa Trew have shown they are capable of anything at the skate park in Paris after winning the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifying Series in Budapest, while Aussie men secured an extra Paris 2024 beach volleyball quota to highlight the weekend in Olympic sport.
Skateboarding – Park & Street - Olympic qualifying series gold for two gold for skateboarders in Budapest
Australian skateboarders Keegan Palmer and Arisa Trew have claimed gold in the men’s and women’s park events at the final of the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Budapest overnight.
The duo, who both hail from the Gold Coast, capped off an impressive run for the Aussies in Budapest.
Keegan Palmer, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, was back at his best with a winning run of 94.94, to give him the confidence boost he was searching for as he prepares to defend his gold medal in Paris.
“There are no words, I’m just speechless at this point. It was very stressful, watching three people land 90s, before I had to drop in, is quite a scary feeling. I’ve learnt to control those feelings now and it worked out today,” he said.
14-year-old Arisa Trew won back-to-back gold medals at the OQS as she eyes off nomination to her first Olympic Games.
“It felt really fun and I was really happy with how I did, I’m just amazed right now. My first run didn’t go as well as I wanted to.
“When I landed my second run I didn’t really think that it would be a winning run. I thought I could probably be like top five or four. When I saw it (the score) I was in shock,” she said.
In the women’s street, top seed Chloe Covell finished fifth after she decided not to contest her final trick, suffering a bruise to her heel during one of landings.
Australia has qualified nine spots for the Paris Olympic Games across the global standings and World Skate qualification, with Skate Australia to nominate athletes to the Australian Olympic Team, with the final team selection expected to be made next week.
Cycling – BMX Freestyle – Diehm delivers for Olympic qualification
Also in Budapest as part of the Olympic Qualifying Series (OQS), Natalya Diehm finished fifth in the women’s BMX freestyle final to take the last Paris 2024 auto-qualification spot for Australia.
Her first run in the final scored 90.86, the second-best score in round one among the 12 riders. It ended up being Natalya's best score after both runs were completed, which placed her fifth less than three points behind the winner Hannah Roberts’ (USA) 93.48.
Overall, in the qualification standings, which also takes into account how the athletes performed at the first OQS event in Shanghai last month, Natalya finished seventh in the world and fellow Aussie Sarah Nicki 15th.
Beach Volleyball – Extra Aussie spot in Paris men’s beach volleyball secured
Australia’s beach volleyballers have earned a second quota for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after winning the Asian Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final in China.
The teams of Izac Carracher/Mark Nicolaidis & Paul Burnett/Jack Pearse both faced China today, with the results of the first two matches forcing a third match decider.
Paul/Jack put up a fierce fight but fell just short in their match up against Chinese pair Wang Y. W./J. Li, going down in straight sets (0:2 | 20-22, 20-22).
Mark/Izac were pushed to a third set in their first match, taking an eventual win (2:1 | 21-17, 20-22, 16-14).
With the wins split one apiece, Mark/Izac faced Chinese pair Wu Jiaxin/HA Likejiang in a third ‘golden’ game, with the winner booking a ticket to Paris for their country.
“It was a little bit stressful out there to be completely honest, at a few points in the game it might have looked like we were down and out,” Mark said.
“The biggest thing we did was we just stuck together as a team, we showed some heart, we fought hard and let the scoreboard take care of itself,” he said.
Archery – Aussies put in final performance ahead of Paris
Six Australian recurve archers were in Turkey for World Cup III for their last opportunity to press their case for Australian Olympic Team nomination.
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Ryan Tyack, Peter Boukouvalas and Jai Crawley were all competing in the men’s recurve, with Ryan placing 33rd, Peter 70th and Jai 73rd.
Laura Paeglis was the highest-placed woman, also 33rd, while Kim Lavender and Sarah Haywood finished 73rd and 89th respectively.
One men’s archer and one women’s archer have the chance to make the Paris 2024 Australian Olympic Team, with Archery Australia set to nominate athletes to the Australian Olympic Committee in the coming week.
Tennis – Tomljanovic runner-up at Birmingham Open
Ajla Tomljanovic’s comeback from injury has gathered strong momentum after going on a run to the Brimingham Open singles final on the weekend.
She defeated four top-60 ranked opponents to get into the final, where Yulia Putintseva was waiting. The Tokyo 2020 Olympian rallied from dropping a quick first set to push Putintseva to the limit in the second, going down 1-6 6-7 (8-10).
The performances have seen Ajla handed a wildcard entry to Wimbledon next week.
Golf – Women’s Olympic qualifying period ends in Washington
Hannah Green and Minjee Lee have finished the two-year Olympic qualifying period as Australia’s top ranked women’s golfers, putting the finishing touches on their top-15 world rankings at the women’s PGA Championship event in Washington.
Both finished tied for 24th on the weekend at four-over par, 11 strokes back of winner Amy Yang from South Korea.
Athletics – Peyton Craig makes bid for Australian Olympic Team
800m runner Peyton Craig has laid down a Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying time in Vienna over the weekend, finishing in 1:44.12.
Queensland-based Peyton’s breakthrough time is also the third fastest 800m in Australian history.
