Peter Bol has improved on his Tokyo 2020 performances in Paris, the home of the 2024 Olympics, and medals have been rolling in to start the FINA World Championships which highlights the Olympic sports action.
Athletics
Peter Bol has broken the Australian 800m record for the third time in the last 12 months, putting in a blistering performance at the Paris leg of the Diamond League.
The 28-year-old finished second with a time of 1:44.00, which shaves .11 of a second off the mark he last set in the 800m semi-finals at Tokyo 2020.
Nicola Olyslagers (nee McDermott) recorded 1.95m in the women’s high jump, finishing equal in third place with Yuliya Levchenko (UKR).
Diamond League action also continued in Oslo, Norway where Oliver Hoare had a dream run in the Dream Mile. He broke his Personal Best by 3.35 seconds and the Australian Record by 0.89 of a second.
It landed him on the podium only behind 1500m Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR).
Swimming
Elijah Winnington got Australia off to the perfect start at the World Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary winning the first gold medal of the event in the men’s 400m freestyle.
For Elijah it’s the first time he’s won a gold medal at the international level, coming off an Olympic Games in Tokyo last year where he took home bronze in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay.
More gold followed for the Aussies as Mollie O'Callaghan, Madi Wilson, Meg Harris and Shayna Jack swam to victory in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.
While the men in their 4x100m freestyle relay - which included Kyle Chalmers, William Yang, Matthew Temple and Jack Cartwright - earned a silver medal for their efforts.
Triple Olympic gold medallist Kaylee McKeown chose to compete in an event she passed on at Tokyo 2020, the women’s 200m individual medley, and took out the silver medal.
The swimming at the FINA World Championships continues tonight from 5pm AEST and runs everyday through Saturday 25th June.
Canoe & Kayak
Olympic champion Jess Fox has continued her impressive World Cup form to take back-to-back K1 crowns.
She was a clear winner in Krakow, Poland this weekend – finishing 2.58 seconds clear of the field - which follows on the win in the Czech Republic a week ago.
“Obviously two wins, it’s a great way to start the season, I’m really happy with the way I paddled in that final,” Jess said.
“It’s a very physical course, the water is kind of dead and slow in a lot of places, you’ve got to always be paddling to keep the speed on the boat. When I finished I would have been interested to see what my heart rate was, because I didn’t have much more in the tank.”
It was a family affair in Poland for the Fox’s, as Noemie paddled to silver in the extreme slalom.
The 25-year-old has been a mainstay on the World Cup circuit and while she’s not trying to get ahead of herself with the potential of an Olympic Games spot for the extreme slalom, she’s putting her best foot forward.
“This year it’s stepped up a whole other level and the quarter-finals are feeling like a final from the get go. So taking it step by step and we’ll see what happens [for Paris 2024],” Noemie said.
“It was definitely a battle out there. Last week in Prague I finished fourth, and good to be in the final again but get a bit of bling [silver medal] in this round.”
The third ICF World Cup will be held from 24-26 June in Slovenia.
Rowing
International rowing has returned as our Aussies travelled over to Poznan, Poland for World Cup 2 action.
There were 23 Australian Olympians from Tokyo 2020 in action and the short runway to Paris 2024 put plenty of emphasis on the competition.
The Australian Team finished second overall in the competition having come away with two gold medals, four silver and three bronze.
The men’s fours (Alexander Purnell, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves, Joseph O'Brien) and women’s fours (Lucy Stephan, Katrina Werry, Bronwyn Cox, Annabelle Mcintyre) were both outstanding and led from start to finish in their respective A finals for gold.
Silver medals were won in the women’s lightweight single (Georgia Nesbitt) and double sculls (Anneka Reardon, Lucy Coleman), with only the USA better in each A final.
Podium results also came from the men’s eight (silver), women’s eight (bronze), men’s double sculls (bronze), women’s single sculls (bronze).
While back home Australia’s U21s won back the Rusty Robertson trophy from New Zealand in the Trans-Tasman Regatta, completing a clean sweep across all the events.
Gymnastics
Tokyo 2020 gymnast Tyson Bull has enjoyed winning the horizontal bar in Slovenia at the Challenge Cup.
The first Australian to qualify for a men’s artistic gymnastics Olympic final, Tyson scored 14.40 to win – very close to his best Tokyo 2020 score of 14.433.
He is set to make his Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham next month.
Beach Volleyball
It was tough going for the Aussie pairings at the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rome, Italy.
Our best performers were Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar, who placed second in their pool and upset the world no.1 pairing of Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon (NED) without dropping a set in the round of 16.
However, their campaign ended in the quarter-finals after Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann edged out a tight battle 21-23, 21-18, 16-14.
The best from the Aussie men were Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis, on World Champs debut, who topped their pool and met their match in the round of 16 against Andre Loyola Stein and George Souto Maior Wanderley (BRA).
Tennis
Nick Kyrgios has had a big week playing excellent tennis with Wimbledon on the horizon.
He advanced to the semi-finals of the Terra Wortmann Open, beating world no.6 Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) from a set down and no.6 seed Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) in straight-sets to get there.
His run ended against no.5 seed Hubert Hurkacz in the semi-finals 6-4, 6-7, 6-7.
The 27-year-old’s entered into the Mallorca Championships before the Wimbledon main draw begins on Monday 27 June.
Artistic Swimming
Georgia Courage-Gardiner and Milena Waldmann have competed in the women's duet technical at the Artistic Swimming World Championships and placed 26th.
The Australian technical team have also competed and finished 17th.
Artistic Swimming events at the FINA World Championships continue daily through Saturday 25 June, click here for the schedule and results.
