Basketball

The Opals claimed a World Cup bronze medal on home soil with a 95-65 victory over Canada on Saturday, their sixth medal from Australia’s last seven World Cup appearances.

Lauren Jackson was the star of the show in her final outing in the green & gold, as the 41-year-old poured in 30 points with seven rebounds and two steals.

Her tandem with Steph Talbot - 16 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and two steals – allowed Australia to pull away from Canada in the second half, outscoring Canada by 22 points.

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Celebrations broke out amongst a raucous Sydney Olympic Park crowd, which included the Opals honouring Lauren by lifting her off the court.

Australian fans got well and truly caught up in the FIBA Women’s World Cup and the Opals, as a record 145,519 people flocked to the games – more than doubling the attendance of the 2018 World Cup.

For Lauren, this bronze medal comes 24 years after she first helped Australia to bronze at the 1998 World Cup. The weekend’s bronze medal match was the 43rd World Cup match of her career, equalling the record.

Also on the weekend, three-time Olympian Robyn Maher was announced as an inductee for FIBA’s 2022 Hall of Fame class.

Robyn played 372 senior games for Australia from 1978 to 1999 (174 of those as captain) and won an Olympic bronze medal at Atlanta 1996.

Shooting

Australia secured two bronze medals at the ISSF World Championships in Osijek, Croatia, with Laetisha Scanlan and James Willett medalling in the mixed team trap event, before Laetisha, Catherine Skinner and Penny Smith won the women’s team trap bronze.

Laetisha and James scored 142/150 in qualification, emerging from a shoot off with Slovenia to qualify for the bronze medal match.

The medal match tested both shooters’ nerves, from leading 3-1 at one point over Bulgaria, before finding themselves 5-3 down, the pair recovered to tie it at 5-5 and send it to a shootoff for the medal.

With Bulgaria going one from two to open the shootoff, James stepped up first for Australia, hitting his target, before Laetisha dispatched the second target to claim bronze medal for Australia.

In the women’s team trap, Laetisha, Rio 2016 Olympic champion Catherine Skinner and Tokyo 2020 Olympian Penny Smith scored 202/225 in qualification to qualify for the bronze medal match against China.

The trio showed their class in the medal match, notching a 6-4 victory to secure the bronze medal.

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Cycling - BMX

Izaac Kennedy won silver at the season ending BMX World Cup event in Bogota, Columbia, also ensuring he finished the season third overall.

With two World Cup events in successive days, Izaac finished fourth on day one of racing but improved for silver and his best result of the season, behind Frenchman Joris Daudet.

On the women’s side, Lauren Reynolds finished the year sixth on the standings after a consistent season, with five top six finishes from six starts.

Athletics

Brett Robinson became just the sixth Australian to run a sub 2.10 marathon, clocking 2:09.52 to finish eighth in the London Marathon.

Beating his Personal Best by more than one minute, the dual Olympian posted the fastest marathon by an Australian in almost two decades.

Beach Volleyball

Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher flew the Australian flag at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Paris Elite 16.

Featuring the top teams in the world, the Aussie pair secured their place in the main draw by winning two qualification matches against opponents from Israel and the United States.

Playing on Centre Court in Roland Garros, the pair lost a tight first game to Dutch duo and current world number two Brouwer and Meeuwsen (25-23, 19-21, 15-13) before defeating the hometown team Remi and Lyneel in another tight three setter, winning 21-18, 16-21, 15-12.