Canoe Slalom – Paris Olympic quota earned & three Oceania champions

Brodie Crawford's Canoe Slalom Oceania Championships silver-medal at Penrith Whitewater Stadium qualified Australia a quota in the Paris 2024 men's canoe competition.

Brodie was the top Oceania competitor, finishing behind winner Lukas Rohan of the Czech Republic, in a breakthrough result with Olympic selections on the horizon.

“It was high pressure but it felt good," Brodie said.

“I have worked really, really hard over the last six months. I have left no stone unturned. So when you get on the start line you just think 'I have done it all, I am prepared there is nothing to worry about' and that gives you confidence."

Jess Fox completed the Oceania Championships trifecta, taking gold in the women's canoe (C1), women's kayak (K1) and women's kayak cross.

Putting on a clean run in both the C1 (106.48 seconds) and K1 (101.09 seconds) finals, Jess was pleased to finish the first racing weekend of the Paris Olympic year strongly.

“It couldn’t have gone better for me this weekend really,” Jess said.

“The kayak and canoe were what I was aiming for, to do some good paddling. And with the kayak cross you never really know, you’ve kind of got to take it step by step and it’s good to get that race experience. I raced well in the final, and made some good strategic decisions, and I was happy."

Jess was joined on the podium twice by her sister Noemie Fox, who secured bronze in the women's K1 and kayak cross events.

“In an Olympic year you definitely feel the shift in quality of racing, and there’s definitely been a big uplift in the competitions,” Noemie said. “That Kayak Cross final felt like a World Championship final, and I was definitely so happy to be in there and be a part of that.”

Tim Anderson became an Oceania champion in finishing joint-fourth with Martin Dogoud (FRA).

“I left a little bit in the tank, I probably could have attacked it a bit more than I did, but it is great to get three clean runs (heats, semis and finals),” Tim said. “I am really happy with the consistency, I was really happy to be up there with the best this weekend."

Read more here.

More competition awaits on Friday with the Australian Open starting at Penrith Whitewater Stadium.

Tennis – Aussies win on and off the court at Australian Open

Matt Ebden and Rohan Bopanna have taken out the Australian Open men’s doubles title after defeating Italian pair Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

The second-seeded duo managed to triumph in straight sets 7-6(0) 7-5 to secure their first major title as a team.

Read more here.

In the women’s singles tournament Aryna Sabalenka took home the title, coached by four-time Australian hockey Olympian Jason Stacy.

Judo – Silver for Haecker at Portugal Grand Prix

Dual Olympian Katharina Haecker has claimed silver in the -63kg category at the Portugal Grand Prix to kickstart her 2024 season, whilst Tokyo 2020 Olympian Aoife Coughlan came away in 5th place in -70kg category.

Australian athletes now head to Paris for the IJF Paris Grand Slam from 2-4 February.

Rugby 7s – Dual second-place finishes in Perth

The third round of the World Rugby Sevens Series headed to Perth where our women’s and men’s teams fought their way into the final.

The women’s team played through adversity to make the final as Maddi Levi picked up a red card in back-to-back games, they lost Bienne Terita to an ankle injury and captain Charlotte Caslick spent some time off the field in the final on a yellow card.

The women’s team went down to Ireland 14-19 on a 13th minute try to Eve Higgins, whilst the men’s team succumbed to Argentina 5-31.

Before the final, the men’s team survived an upset from the USA in the pool stages – then kicked into top-gear to beat them in the quarter-final rematch and knocked out the defending Olympic champions Fiji in the semi-finals. They did it with James Turner missing most of the tournament and Henry Hutchison on a reduced workload.

Read more here.

The runner up results for the men’s has seen them move up from 6th place in the overall rankings to 3rd, whilst the women’s team is still at the top of the ranks in the series after winning the first two rounds in Dubai and Cape Town.

The next round will be played in Vancouver, Canada from 23-25 February.

Athletics – Torrie Lewis now Australia’s fastest woman

Torrie Lewis has broken the Australian women’s 100m record with a time of 11.10 seconds at the ACT Open and Under 20 Championships. The 19-year-old shaved one-hundredth of a second off the previous record held by London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympian Melissa Breen, set in 2014.

"To me, it is finally here,” Torrie said. “I've been after times like these for what seems like ages now, never letting myself think too much of it, but always wanting to get there."

Following in the footsteps of three-time Olympic medallist Raelene Boyle and two-time Olympian Melissa Breen, the rising star coached by Andrew Iselin fell just shy of the 11.07 qualifying standard for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, allowing her to dream big in 2024.

In the field, Nicola Olyslagers started her year by clearing the highest jump on Australian soil in women’s high jump history. Her jump of 2.03m has equalled her current Australian record which she achieved in 2023 at the Diamond League Final in Eugene, United States.

Read more here.

Sailing – Olympic champion moves into World Championships lead

On a Sunday where many stuttered, Matt Wearn moved into the lead at the halfway point of the 2024 ILCA 7 World Championships in Adelaide.

With light, variable breezes and athletes fighting to make Monday’s finals series causing chaos elsewhere, Matt made life easy for himself in the first race by leading from start to finish.

“I was probably helped by a few guys who liked those conditions getting black flagged (disqualified),” Matt said of that first race.

“I managed to get around the top mark in a decent position which I had been struggling to do earlier in the week. I knew my boat speed was there so once I was in a position to utilise that it meant I could sail away a bit.”

Matt’s rivalry with British sailor Micky Beckett will continue at this event. The back-to-back Princess Sofia trophy champion was boat of the day, winning both his races today to move into second.

Beckett finished second behind Matt at both the Paris Olympic Test Event and World Championships last year, but the two are yet to face each other at this event as they have been allocated to different fleets on each of the three days.

That changes today from 1:30pm AEDT when Matt, Beckett and the other top-ranked sailors will begin two days of finals racing in the gold fleet. Matt is one of six Aussies in gold fleet, with Australian Sailing Squad athletes Ethan McAullay, Luke Elliott, Zac Littlewood, Finn Alexander and Stefan Elliott-Shircore all making the cut.

Visit the event website for more details and see full results here.