The Dolphins made a massive statement in the pool on the opening night of their World Championships campaign and Cassiel Rousseau did what no Australian diver has done before at the World Champs to highlight the weekend in sport.
Swimming – Dolphins make blistering start to World Championships
The Dolphins have produced a remarkable start to their 2023 Aquatics World Championships in the pool, with the team recording their most successful night in the history of the event.
Four gold medals were clinched by athletes representing the green and gold, spearheaded by Ariarne Titmus’ World Record in the women’s 400m freestyle and another World Record by the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team.
Ariarne led from start to finish in a field that included American great Katie Ledecky and Canada’s Summer McIntosh, all of which have held the World Record in the past 18 months.
The Australian’s swim lowered the World Record McIntosh set at 3:56.08 to 3:55.38, with Ariarne proclaiming re-capturing the World Record was more satisfying than winning Olympic gold in the event in 2021.
"To swim like that and swim really free and fearless, I feel really over the moon to get that one," Ariarne said.
The women's freestyle relayers - Mollie O'Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon - bettered the world mark set by Australia at the most recent Tokyo Olympics in winning their gold. Their time last night, 3:27.96, is 1.73 seconds faster than the Tokyo time (3:29.69) and almost four seconds faster than the world championships silver medallists from the USA.
In the next race, Australia's men's 4x100m relay team - Jack Cartwright, Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Kyle Chalmers – held off the USA (3:10.81) and Italy (3:10.49) to claim gold (3:10.16).
While earlier in the night Sam Short took the men’s 400m freestyle world champion title from teammate Elijah Winnington, joining a rich Australian list of world champions in the event including Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett and Kieren Perkins.
"They're my heroes," Sam said.
"I couldn't wait to get on the lane rope and start flexing to be honest. It's what you dream about as a young guy."
Action from the pool continues at 11:30am AEST for heats and 9pm AEST for finals on Channel 9 and 9Now, right through to Sunday 30 July.
Diving - Historic 10m World Championship gold for Cassiel Rousseau
Cassiel Rousseau made history as the first Australian to win the 10m men’s World Championship crown, taking gold with an incredible performance in Fukuoka, Japan.
The 22-year-old was ranked ninth after his first dive, but a series of impressive dives saw him take the lead after his penultimate fifth dive, with all the pressure on his final dive to win gold.
His final dive, a forward 4 ½ somersault tuck was expertly executed and scored 98.05 points secure his maiden World Championship title.
Earlier in the day, Domonic Bedggood and Maddison Keeney won silver in the mixed 3m springboard, capping off a successful week in the pool for Maddison who also finished fourth in the women’s 3m springboard.
With top 12 finishes in individual events securing Paris 2024 quota places for their country, Rousseau’s gold and Keeney’s fourth lock in the first two diving quotas for Australia. More opportunities to qualify diving quotas will come at the next instalment of the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, in February 2024.
Equestrian - Jumpers qualify for Paris Olympics
The Australian Jumping Team secured their spot at the Paris Olympics, winning the Group G Olympic Qualification event in Valkenswaard, Netherlands.
Needing a top two finish to earn a quota, the Australian team of Edwina Tops-Alexander & Fellow Castlefield, Hilary Scott & Oaks Milky Way, Chris Burton & Chedington Hazy Toulana and Lauren Balcomb & Verdini D’Houtzeld Z topped the leaderboard, finishing with a total of 23 penalties, nine clear of second placed Japan on 32.
With Eventing and Dressage quotas already locked in, the result ensures Australia have qualified the maximum number of places for the Paris Olympics.
Artistic Swimming - Aussies secure Paris qualification with World Champs performance
The Australian Artistic Swimming Team secured their spot at Paris 2024, finishing eighth in the team free and 12th in the team technical at the World Championships in Fukuoka.
With the World Championships also acting as the Oceania continental qualifying event, Australia topped New Zealand to secure their quota.
Australia’s eighth place finish in the team free was their first ever World Championships top 10 finish in the team event, scoring 221.6416 to lock in their best World Championships result since Donella Burridge finished 7th in solo at the 1978 Championships.
With the team event quota also qualifying the duet to perform at Paris, the result ensures Australia has qualified for the full Artistic Swimming program at Paris.
Surfing - Two runners up at J-Bay, Ewing secures ranking requirement for Paris 2024
Molly Picklum and Ethan Ewing both finished runner up at the famed J-Bay break in South Africa in the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour.
Molly had a giant-killing run to the final, knocking off eight-time world champion Steph Gilmore in the quarter-finals and current world number one Carissa Moore in the semis, before American Lakey Peterson just edged her 14.77-13.50 in the final.
Tyler Wright also made the semi-finals, with Tyler currently second and Molly fourth in world rankings with just one event to go before the season-ending World Championship finals, which pits the top five surfers against each other for the season crown.
Ethan beat former world champion Gabriel Medina of Brazil and hometown favourite South African Jordy Smith on his path to the final, before going down to world number one Felipe Toledo in the final.
The event sees Ethan move to second in world rankings, and unable to be forced out of the top five, ensuring his spot at the season ending finals in early September and securing the ranking requirement for Paris 2024 qualification.
Australian surfers can qualify for Paris 2024 by finishing as one of the top two Australian surfers in the top eight (women’s) or top 10 (men’s) in the 2023 WSL rankings, and by attending all required qualification events under the International Surfing Association (ISA) Paris 2024 qualification system, with a further chance to qualify additional athletes at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games.
In July 2024, Surfing Australia will nominate those athletes who have satisfied the Surfing Australia Paris 2024 nomination criteria to the Australian Olympic Committee for selection.
With the J-Bay result and current rankings, Ethan is guaranteed to be the highest ranked Australian male surfer year end.
Skateboarding – Golden X-Games for Aussie duo
Australia’s young skateboarders have dominated the podiums at the X-Games in California, claiming three gold, a silver and bronze medal.
Paris 2024 hopefuls Chloe Covell and Arisa Trew both carved out their own slice of history when they won gold in the women’s skateboard street and skateboard vert respectively.
At 13 years old Chloe has become the youngest women’s skateboard street gold medallist in X-Games history, and also won a bronze medal in the women's skateboard street best trick competition.
“It’s crazy, it’s been my dream my whole entire life to even just get a gold medal. I’m really stoked and thank you to everyone for coming out and supporting me,” Chloe said.
It comes off the back of her recent silver medal at the World Skate Skateboarding Street World Tour in Italy.
Fellow Queenslander Trew (also 13 years old) cemented herself as one of the rising stars of the sport in landing another 720, this time the world’s first official 720 in a female skateboarding competition.
Following her victory in the women’s skateboard vert, Arisa Trew (QLD) took home her second gold medal in just two days by winning the women’s skateboard park event with a top score of 91.00.
At 13 years old, Arisa has become the first female in X-Games history to take home the skateboard gold double.
“I’m just so happy that I landed my run because I just really wanted to land my run. I’m even more happy that I podiumed and won gold,” Arisa said.
In the men’s skateboard park, Olympic champion Keegan Palmer took home the silver medal behind the USA’s Jagger Eaton.
Chloe and Arisa will now return home to Australia, continuing their qualification journeys towards Paris 2024. Chloe will next be in action at the Street Skateboarding World Tour in Switzerland from 10-17 September, while Arisa will compete at the Park World Championships held in Italy from 1-8 October.
Athletics - Medals and records galore at European Diamond League meets
Australian track and field athletes continued their sizzling form in the Northern Hemisphere, headlined by an Oceania record by Catriona Bisset in the 800m. Catriona, a Tokyo Olympian, posted a blistering time of 1:57.78 in London to break her own Oceania 800m record, becoming the first Australian woman to crack the 1:58 mark.
Brooke Buschkuehl leapt an impressive 6.72m to claim the women’s long jump silver medal and Matthew Denny threw a season best 66.77m to win silver in the men’s discus - his best Diamond League finish to date.
While in Monaco Jess Hull claimed the women's Oceania mile record clocking a time of 4:15.34, finishing the race in fifth place.
Nicola Olyslagers continued her winning streak, clearing 1.99m on her third attempt of the women's high jump to claim her third Diamond League victory of the year.
Golf – Career-best finish for Day at The Open Championship
Jason Day achieved a career-best Open Championship finish at Royal Liverpool Golf Club over the weekend, tying for second behind American Brian Harman.
The Queenslander battled challenging weather throughout the final round to claim equal second place.
Water Polo – Stingers through to World Champs Quarters
The Stingers have booked their spot in the quarter-finals of the World Aquatic Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. Having finished second in the group stages, the Australian team went on to defeat Israel 16-7 in the cross over game over the weekend.
The Aussie side are set to take on Greece on Monday night, with the winner progressing through to the semi-finals.
On the men’s side, the Sharks rounded out the preliminary rounds with a dominant 22-6 win over Kazakhstan on Friday, with 10 players scoring goals throughout the match. Coming up against France in the cross over game on Sunday, the Sharks narrowly missed progressing through to the quarter finals with an 8-11 loss.
BMX - Freestyle – Logan Martin wins X-Games bronze
Tokyo Olympic champion Logan Martin continued his impressive run of international podiums, winning bronze at the X-Games in California.
After qualifying through the semi-finals in second place, Logan’s best run in the final of 92.66 secured the podium finish, just behind Argentinian Jose Torres (95.33) and American Kevin Peraza (93.33).
Cycling - Road – Hindley finishes seventh in Tour de France as women’s tour begins
Jai Hindley has completed his first Tour de France with plenty to be proud of, finishing seventh overall.
The 2022 Giro d'Italia winner finished the 3401.3 km race in 82 hours, 20 minutes and 26 seconds - approximately 15 minutes off the champion Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) - and 3 minutes and 48 seconds away from the podium.
The women’s Tour de France has now commenced with 12 Aussies (eight debutants) in the field. After stage one Amanda Pratt is the best-placed Australian at 19th.
Fencing - Aussies World Championship campaign underway
The 17-strong Australian Fencing Team for the 2023 World Championships in Milan, Italy have started their campaign.
Only two days in, Lachlan Crook has the best result of the Australian contingent so far, progressing through to the round of 64 in men’s epee.
Beach Volleyball – Round of 16 Pro Tour appearances in Canada
Three Aussie men’s pairs hit up Edmonton, Canada on the weekend in the Beach Pro Tour Challenge with two duos making it to the round of 16.
Chris McHugh & Paul Burnett advanced from qualifying and the pool matches to take on Sergiy Popov & Eduard Reznik (UKR) in the round of 16, where they went down in straight sets 15-21 19-21.
Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher also had a tough encounter in the round of 16, falling to Christiaan Varenhorst & Leon Luini (NED) 13-21 18-21.
The Chris McHugh/Paul Burnett and Tom Hodges/Zac Schubert pairs finished equal-ninth at the Beach Pro Tour event in Portugal over the weekend.
Rowing – Top performances at U23 World Championships
The future of Australian rowing put on a strong display at the U23 World Championships in Bulgaria this weekend, highlighted by the women’s coxed four becoming back-to-back world champions.
Our Australian Under-23 team is on fire 🔥 #Day4
— RowingAust (@RowingAust) July 22, 2023
🇦🇺Gold 🥇for our Women's 4+
🇦🇺 Bronze🥉for our Men's 2-
🇦🇺 4th in A-Final, Men's Coxed 4+
🇦🇺 The Men's 4- & 4X & WLW1X all won their SFs & have qualified for their A-Finals (23.7.23)
👏🏻👏🏾👏🏽👏
📸 Art of Rowing pic.twitter.com/MoFh6ERiYG
Katherine Easton, Sophie Houston, Zara Collisson, Emily Sheppard and coxswain Nicholas Dunlop put a slow start behind them to power home for gold.
Shooting – Sign of a bright future at Junior World Champs
Molly Bretag nearly found herself on the podium at the 2023 Junior World Championships, finishing the women’s trap event fourth in Changwon, South Korea.
It comes one week after Laetisha Scanlan brought home gold for Australia in the women’s trap at the Italian World Cup.
