Road Cycling

Tokyo 2020 cyclist Grace Brown has achieved Australia’s equal-best ever result in the UCI World Championships, claiming silver in the elite women’s individual time trial in Wollongong on Sunday.

The 30-year-old Victorian spent most of the morning in the race leader’s hot seat only to see her time (44:41.33 on the 34.2km course) bested by the last finisher, defending champion Ellen van Dijk from the Netherlands.

Not since Anna Wilson in 1999 had an Australian won silver in the event.

“My goal was to be on the podium and my dream was to win the race. I achieved my goal and I can still aim towards that dream,” Grace said.

“I was feeling really proud of my ride, but it was agonising and I thought there was still a chance that maybe I could win the race overall, but van Dijk had a phenomenal day.

“I just went as fast as I could. It was a technical course, a lot of on-off, not much time to look at your power and think about your pacing. You just had to go hard where you could and recover where you could.

“I think this would have to be close to the top of my result experiences, especially being in Australia and having all the cheers on the roadside and having my family in the crowd, on the podium and while I was in the hot seat. Just the whole day was really special. To come away with a medal here was pretty big.

“It gives me a lot of confidence that in the years to come I can really be one of the top names in time-trialling. Now I’m really making my mark, which is cool.”

Tasmania’s Georgia Baker secured eighth place, 1 minute and 46 seconds behind van Dijk.

“I’m happy. I’m always someone that strives for the best. Now I am in the top 10, I’d love to be on that podium. So hopefully I’ll come back next time and hopefully be aiming for the podium,” Georgia said.

In the men’s individual time trial Luke Plapp was the best of the Aussies, finishing 12th on his elite World Championships debut.

The Tokyo 2020 track cycling bronze medallist was content with his result.

“I think it was the best I could’ve asked for. I knew it wasn’t going to be a great ride coming off the Vuelta.

“I hope I can fill the shoes that the Aussie men have left, because there is a great legacy and history with Australian men’s time trialling and I’d love to be a part of that.

“I think the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games would be an amazing goal [for me]. It’s a long way away, but I think we have a lot of time to build towards that.”

The World Championships continue right through to Sunday 25 September.

Beach Volleyball

Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy have returned to competition for the first time since winning silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, collecting more silver at the Asian senior women’s Beach Volleyball Championships.

They took on New Zealand’s Shaunna Polley and Alice Zeimann in the final. The Aussies lost the first set 18-21 and then pushed Polley and Zeimann to the limit in the second set, but just came up short 24-26.

While Rio Olympian Nikki Laird teamed up with Phoebe Bell and made the quarter-finals, where their campaign ended at the hands of Japan’s Miki Ishii and Sayaka Mizoe.

Tennis

Australia have secured their spot at the Davis Cup finals in November after wins against France and Belgium in the group stage.

It was all one-way traffic for the Aussies against France and Belgium as Alex de Minaur was unbeaten in singles, while Matt Ebden and Max Purcell didn’t drop a set in doubles.

Then came a matchup with Germany to determine who would finish at the top of group C.

After falling behind 0-1 in the tie when Matt and Max lost 4-6 4-6 to Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz, Thanasi Kokkinakis defeated Oscar Otte in the singles to level the ledger.

Australia had nothing to lose with qualification for the Davis Cup finals already secured and Max subsequently made his Davis Cup singles debut against Jan-Lennard Struff.

A strong fightback in the second set from Max was not enough to prevent a 1-6 5-7 straight sets loss, which ended the tie 2-1 in Germany’s favour.

Next up for the Aussie team will be a Davis Cup quarter-final against the Netherlands in Malaga, Spain on the 23rd of November.

Read more here.

Golf

Hannah Green has had a strong showing at Portland Classic stop on the LGPA Tour, finishing in a tie for third at 17-under and two strokes away from the winner.

The 2019 Portland Classic champion entered the final day at 12-under, just one stroke away from the leaders Lilia Vu (USA) and eventual 2022 champion Andrea Lee (USA).

Fellow Aussies Sarah Kemp placed T-36 (-5) and Karis Davidson T-47 (-3) respectively.

Rowing

Day one of the 2022 World Rowing Championships for the Australian Rowing Team overnight produced four heat wins in Racice, Czech Republic.

Tara Rigney (women's single scull) and Alex Hill/Harley Moore (men's coxless pair) finished first and are straight through to the semi-finals.

Hamish Harding (men's lightweight single scull) and Caleb Antill/David Bartholot (men's double sculls) also topped the field and are into the quarter-finals.

In cold and windy conditions seven of the 10 Aussies who competed on day one have progressed into the quarter-finals or semi-finals start lists.

Racing continues tonight from 5:30pm AEST with the heats of the PR2 women’s single scull (5:40pm), PR3 men’s pair (5:50pm), women’s pair (6:02pm), women’s lightweight double sculls (6:32pm), PR3 mixed coxed four (7:26pm), women’s coxless four (7:53pm), men’s coxless four (8:17pm), women’s quadruple sculls (8:29pm), and the repechage of the lightweight men’s double (12:54am).

The event runs through to Sunday 25 September.

Read more here.

Equestrian

The Australian eventing team have finished 10th at the FEI World Championships Pratoni, Italy this morning.

Their score of 174.3 was contributed to by Andrew Hoy riding Vassily de Lassos, Shane Rose riding Virgil, Kevin McNab riding Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam and Hazel Shannon riding WillingaPark Clifford.

Shane Rose was the best placed Aussie, finishing 13th after the show jumping.