BMX Racing and BMX Freestyle – Kennedy, Sakakibara and Martin all on World Cup podiums

BMX Racing
Izaac Kennedy made the ultimate return from a ruptured ACL, winning his first career UCI BMX Racing World Cup in his home state of Queensland on Saturday.

Having not raced at the elite level since going down with the ACL injury in July last year, Izaac made his return in round three of the World Cup season and did not disappoint. The 23-year-old was overcome with emotion after recording the best result of his career in front of family and friends.

“It's been a really, really tough eight months coming back from a serious injury last year. And I went through a few tough months not knowing whether I was ever going to get back to this point or if I wanted to continue,” Izaac said at the Sleeman Sports Complex in Brisbane.

“But I stuck my head down and put so much work in. Every single day I woke up, my whole purpose was just to be the best BMX athlete I can be. And yeah, I've put in a lot of work, and it's taken everything out of me to get to this point.

“To win my first ever World Cup in front of the home crowd, it's an insane feeling. Couldn’t have drawn it up any better.

“The hometown crowd, they were amazing. Every single time I was on the track, I heard them and yeah, definitely pushed me to be good today.”

Saya Sakakibara came very close to making it two gold for Australia on Saturday, taking second place in the women's elite final behind Zoe Claessens (SUI).

“Even though I got second, it was so amazing for the crowd to be cheering for me, and it was so cool. I don't know, I just feel like I've won, and I did like my best out there. And that's all I can do, seriously," Saya said.

In Sunday’s final, Claessens won the first corner and flew down the first straight, opening up an unassailable lead with Saya once again finishing in second place to maintain top spot in the UCI BMX Racing World Cup standings.

The results secure Australia valuable international ranking points that are all important for Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying, which will continue when the next BMX Racing World Cup takes place in Tulsa, USA from 27-28 April.

Read more here.

BMX Freestyle
A rain affected opening to the 2024 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup campaign in Enoshima, Japan has resulted in a silver medal for Logan Martin.

With the weather wiping out practice, the semi-finals and finals, medals were determined by the qualification results where Logan's 91.00 was second only to Anthony Jeanjean's (FRA) 91.50.

Natalya Diehm ranked fifth in the women’s qualifying, and overall, with her score of 61.8.

Read more here.

Weightlifting – Triple gold for Aussies at Oceania Championships

Eleven senior Aussie weightlifters competed in Auckland, New Zealand at the Oceania Weightlifting Championships over the weekend.

Tokyo 2020 Olympian Kiana Elliott narrowly won gold in her category (59kg), lifting 97kg in the snatch and 114kg in the clean and jerk, resulting in a total of 211kg, just one kilogram more than second place.

2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Sarah Cochrane (71kg) claimed gold, lifting a total of 209kg, whilst Kyle Bruce lifted 328kg in the men’s 89kg to claim the golden title.

In the women’s 64kg, Darcy Kay took home silver, lifting a combined total of 193kg with Karli Duesbury-Marek following her lead, claimging silver in the women’s 55kg, lifting 160kg total.

The Oceania Championships is one of five milestone events, of which weightlifters must attend three of to be eligible for Paris 2024 under the International Weightlifting Federation qualification criteria.

Football – Matildas take commanding lead towards Paris 2024 qualification

The Matildas have Paris 2024 qualification within reach after posting a strong 3-0 win against Uzbekistan in Tashkent on Saturday.

In freezing conditions, second half goals from Michelle Heyman, Mary Fowler and Caitlin Foord helped Australia break down a determined and well-organised Uzbekistan defence to take a strong lead in the two-leg tie.

Michelle made her on-pitch return to the national team for the first time since 2018 netting her first goal for Australia since 9 August 2016, when she scored against Zimbabwe at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The Matildas have a 3-0 lead for the second and final leg of the home-and-home series, with Melbourne on hosting duties this Wednesday 28 February.

The match was also a special moment for 23-year-old Queenslander Kaitlyn Torpey, who received Matildas Cap #227.

Tennis – Thompson, Purcell and Hunter revel in ATP & WTA title victories

Jordan Thompson has lifted his first ATP singles trophy in Mexico with a hard-fought victory over world no.12 Casper Ruud (NOR) 6-3 7-6(4) at Los Cabos. It came less than a day after Jordan took out the no.1 seed and world no.6 Alexander Zverev (GER) 7-5 4-6 7-6(2).

The 29-year-old wasn’t finished when he won the singles title, as he took out the doubles title with Max Purcell, beating Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ) and Gonzalo Escobar (ECU) 7-5 7-6(2) in the final.

Meanwhile Storm Hunter won the Dubai WTA 1000 doubles title with Katerina Siniakova (CZE), defeating fellow Australian Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) 6-4 6-2 in the final.

An ATP world rankings update today will make Matt Ebden the world’s number one men’s doubles player, just the fifth Australian to top the ATP Tour doubles list since 1976.

Read more here.

Triathlon – Maiden World Cup gold for Aussie triathletes

Callum McClusky and Sophie Linn claimed their first ever World Cup victories over the weekend at the World Triathlon Cup in Napier, New Zealand in the men’s and women’s events respectively.

Finishing in a time of 49.41, Callum crossed the finish line six seconds ahead of second place Hayden Wilds (49.47), with Spain’s Alberto Gonzalez Garcia in third (49.49).

In the women’s event Sophie Linn crossed the line in a time of 56.35, with Great Britain's Sophie Alden (56.43) and Olivia Mathias (56.44) only seconds behind to round out the podium.

The duo came together on day two of competition forming a team with fellow Aussies Emma Jeffcoat and Brandon Copeland for the mixed relay event where Team Australia claimed gold in a time of 1:13.36. 

Hockey – India FIH Pro League Series near perfect for Kookaburras

The Kookaburras have had their seven-game win streak at the FIH Pro League in India snapped, ultimately going down to the top ranked Netherlands 5-3 in their final match over the weekend.

FIH Pro League action continues in May with massive matches in Belgium and the UK, for both the Kookaburras and the Hockeyroos.

Read more here.

Rugby 7s – Aussie 7s teams finish round 4 in Vancouver

The fourth stage of the Rugby Sevens World Series took our Aussie 7s teams to Vancouver, Canada over the weekend with a fourth and tenth place finish for the women’s and men’s teams respectively.

The women’s team fell short in the semi-final to France 19-21, seeing them play off against the host country in the bronze medal match where they were defeated by Canada 14-19.

The men’s team played off against South Africa for 9th/10th position where they were defeated 7-24.

Read more here.

Gymnastics - Artistic & Trampoline –  World Cup action in Germany and Azerbaijan

Artistic FIG Apparatus World Cup
The Olympic qualification tour continued for our Aussie gymnasts over the weekend in Cottbus, Germany.

Tokyo Olympian Tyson Bull placed eighth in the men’s high bar, while James Bacueti claimed fifth in the men’s vault finals.

Trampoline World Cup
Five Australian trampolinists competed over the weekend at the Trampoline World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Imogen Florien was the top placed Aussie in 31st with a score of 52.400, followed by Abbie Watts in 35th (52.030). In the men’s event, Blake Rutherford was the highest scoring Aussie with a 56.500 to finish 32nd, followed by Shaun Swadling in 41st (55.740) and Brock Batty in 44th (55.620).

Golf – LPGA continues in Thailand

Sarah Kemp and Grace Kim were Australia’s best at the LPGA tour stop in Chonburi, Thailand as they tied for 31st on 8-under, with Stephanie Kyriacou one shot back to finish T-41.

Basketball – 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers underway for Boomers

The Boomers made a cracking start to their 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers over the weekend, winning two from two games against Korea (85-71) and Indonesia (106-51).

They are set to continue their qualifying campaign in November 2024 where they’ll play Thailand and South Korea.

Surfing – ISA World Surfing Games heating up

The ISA World Surfing Games kicked off over the weekend, with six Aussies competing. Both the men’s and women’s events are up to the third round of heats, with the finals scheduled for Sunday 3 March.

With two female and two male quota spots already secured for Australia at Paris 2024, the competition marks a final chance for surfers to earn an additional quota spot in both the men's and women's competition, with only the top ranked nation clinching an extra quota.

Event Coverage:
Stream the event on the Olympic Channel and keep up to date with Surfing Australia.

Skateboarding - Park – Olympic qualifying continues on Wednesday

The World Skateboarding Tour (WST) has park athletes in Dubai, UAE for a two-part Paris 2024 qualifying series.

With the WST Dubai Park qualifying on Wednesday 28 February, this event is the last chance for athletes to make sure they are ranked in the top-44 of the Olympic World Skate Rankings in order to progress to part two of the Olympic qualifying series.

Event Coverage:
Watch live on the Olympic Channel and keep up to date with Skate Australia.