Track cyclists have kickstarted Australia's campaign at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships and the Cassiel Rousseau/Dom Bedggood diving duo found the podium to highlight the weekend in sport.
Cycling - Track, Road & BMX Freestyle – Australian cyclists claim their first medals of the world championships
Australian cyclists have launched their world championship campaign in Glasgow, Scotland with the track team earning two silver medals in the opening weekend.
Kristina Clonan claimed her first ever world champs medal on Saturday, with a silver in the women's elite 500m time trial.
The men's team sprint crew of Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson, Matthew Glaetzer and Thomas Cornish also won silver in the Men's elite team sprint – just 0.035 seconds behind the gold-medal winning Dutch.
23-year-old Matthew Dinham had an incredible performance in the men's elite road race to finish 7th, with fellow Aussie Simon Clarke finishing the event in 21st place.
Olympic gold medallist Logan Martin qualified first in men's BMX freestyle for the finals later tonight (10pm AEST), where he will be joined by compatriot Josh Matthews who qualified in 22nd place.
Sarah Nicki and Natalya Diehm finished their world championship campaign in 15th and 21st respectively in the women's BMX Freestyle.
The world championships will continue through Sunday 13 August.
Diving – World Cup Silver for Rousseau and Bedggood
World champion Cassiel Rousseau and Rio 2016 Olympian Dom Bedggood finished their 2023 season in style at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup over the weekend, claiming silver in the men's 10m synchro with a total score of 411.84.
"We weren't really expecting a podium result, we were hoping for a top-five finish similar to what we did at worlds to continue the progression," Dom said.
"To come away with a silver medal is very exciting for us. I think it says a lot about Aussies, we always stay in the fight and never quit, that really proved to help us in the competition."
Other notable results include a 4th place finish for Shixin Li in the men's 3m springboard final, 8th place for Brittany O'Brien in the women's 3m springboard final, and 5th place for Alysha Koloi and Maddison Keeney in the women's 3m synchro final.
Additionally, on the 10m platform, Emily Meaney placed 8th in the women's final, while Cassiel Rousseau and Sam Fricker placed 6th and 9th respectively in the men's final.
The Australian diving team will now return home to prepare for the next international season where further quota positions to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be up for grabs.
Sport Climbing – 7th Heaven For Oceania at World Championships
Oceania Mackenzie finished seventh in boulder at the IFSC Climbing World Championships in Bern, Switzerland equalling Australia's best-ever result at a climbing world championships.
After qualifying for semi-finals in 19th position, Oceania was the second climber on the wall and set the standard for the rest of the field. With the top six progressing to the final, she was just edged out of competing for the boulder medals.
Although Oceania didn't progress beyond the lead qualification round after finishing in 45th, her 7th place finish in Boulder earned the Victorian valuable points towards her combined score.
After the conclusion of the finals, the top 20 ranked boulder/lead competitors will compete again in both disciplines from Wednesday 9 August with three Olympic quota places on offer.
Gymnastics - Trampoline – Bronze for women's duo at USA World Cup
Tokyo Olympian Jess Pickering and Abbie Watts have taken bronze at the Trampoline World Cup in Florida.
Together they scored 47.510, only behind Brazil's 48.360 (Camilla and Alice Gomes) and the USA's 48.550 (Nicole Ahsinger and Sarah Webster).
Archery - Ryan Tyack in showdown with world no.1 at the world champs
The Australian Archery Team have spent the past week in Germany competing in the World Archery Championships, with dual Olympian Ryan Tyack finding himself in a shoot-off with world no.1 Woojin Kim (KOR).
In the 128 men's recurve field Ryan and Kim squared off in the third round, with the top seed winning 9*-9 (6-5) to place Ryan 17th overall.
The men's recurve team - made up of Peter Boukouvalas, Jai Crawley and Ryan - were the best ranked Aussie finishers at the world championships, coming in ninth along with the men's and mixed compound teams.
Athletics – Aussies firing as world champs team is announced
Track and field athletes put in some solid performances around the world, headlined by 20-year-old Reece Holder clocking the fastest 400m time by an Australian in 17 years.
Reece won silver at the 2023 World University Games in Chengdu, clocking 44.79, a time which meets the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying standard and moves Reece to number five Australian all time in the men's 400m.
Middle distance runners Abbey Caldwell and Linden Hall also tuned up, going one-two in the 1000m at the Citius meet in Bern, Switzerland, with Abbey breaking the Australian record in the process in a scorching 2:34.63.
Nina Kennedy won the women’s pole vault event at Jockgrim, Germany, launching to 4.73m in a great show of form just two weeks out from the world championships.
She is one of 67 athletes to be named in Australia's team for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest from 19-27 August.
Reigning world champions Kelsey-Lee Barber (javelin), Eleanor Patterson (high jump), global medallist Nina Kennedy and high jump world leader Nicola Olyslagers have been entrusted with spearheading Australia's ambitions.
Read the full selection announcement here.
Tennis – De Minaur's strong run of form in Mexico ends in ATP Final
Alex de Minaur surged all the way to the ATP Los Cabos Final this weekend for a shot at the title against world no.5 Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE), with the Aussie entering the match on a nine-game winning streak in Mexico.
Tsitsipas has proven to be one of the toughest challenges for Alex in his career so far, holding a 10-1 advantage over Alex on the ATP Tour prior to the final, and Tsitsipas held strong once again to win 6-3 6-4 in the final on Sunday. In finishing runner-up, Alex’s world ranking is set to improve to world no.18.
While in the men's doubles 29-year-old Andrew Harris advanced to his first ATP doubles final at Los Cabos, finishing runner-up with Germany's Dominik Koepfer.
Basketball - 3x3 – Gangurrus valiant run has them finish runners up
Following the Gangurrus' sensational bronze medal performance at the FIBA Women's 3x3 World Cup earlier this year, the team have climbed an international podium once again with silver at the FIBA 3x3 Series event in Yichang, China on Saturday.
They took on the hosts in the final without Lauren Mansfield, who they were without for the entire tournament which left the Gangurrus without a substitute.
The trio of Anneli Maley, Marena Whittle and Emma Clarke showed great resilience to win four straight games to the final - where they built an 8-3 lead against China.
Lili Wang, ZhiTing Zhang, Kun Huang and Yujie Chen closed the match on an 11-5 run to take a narrow 14-13 win.
Taekwondo – 7-medal haul in Korea in build up to Korean Open this week
The Australian Taekwondo team cleaned up at the G1-level Kimunyong Cup in Korea with the team claiming seven medals, including gold for Leon Sejranovic and Reba Stewart.
The team will take these strong results into the Chuncheon Korea Open later this week, at the higher G2 level.
You can follow along with Aus Taekwondo here.
