Swimming – Dolphins bring home gold

The Aussie Dolphins brought home two gold medals on the final night of their World Aquatics Championships campaign in Doha over the weekend.

Tokyo 2020 Olympian Isaac Cooper clinched the 50m backstroke world title setting a national record of 24.12 in the semi-finals and 24.13 in the finals to secure the gold medal.

The women’s 4x100m medley relay team of Iona Anderson, Abbey Harkin, Brianna Throssell and Shayna Jack stormed to the finish line in a time of 3:55.98 ahead of Sweden (3:56.35) and Canada (3:56.43) to secure the gold medal.

The Dolphins finished third on the medal tally with three gold, nine silver and four bronze medals to cap off their World Aquatics Championships campaign.

Read more here.

Canoe Sprint – Olympic quotas provisionally secured in Sydney

The Olympic year in canoe sprint is off to a strong start with Australia’s top crews in fine form at the Canoe Sprint Grand Prix II, at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, which doubled as the Oceania Championships.

Josephine Bulmer in the women’s C1 200 (50.64 seconds) and Ben Manning in the men’s C1 1000 (4:06.90) both provisionally landed Australia a quota for Paris 2024 with their wins on Friday and Sunday respectively.

Olympic champions Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen won the men’s K2 500 in a time of 1:30.75, with Tom also taking out gold in the men’s K1000 (3:31.96).

Alyce Wood won silver in the women’s K2 500, behind Aimee Fisher (NZL).

Aussie K4 500 crews crossed the line first, with the men (Riley Fitzsimmons, Jackson Collins, Pierre van der Westhuyzen and Noah Havard) earning gold in 1:19.67 and the women (Ella Beere, Aly Bull, Ally Clarke and Yale Steinepreis) in 1:35.44.

Read more here.

The action returns to the Sydney International Regatta Centre from 7-10 March for the 2024 Paddle Australia Canoe Sprint Championships.

Athletics – Middle distance talent dominates the Maurie Plant Meet

International track and field talents took to Melbourne to compete in the second ever Maurie Plant Meet last Thursday.

Australia’s middle distance runners notched impressive victories, with Tokyo 2020 Olympian Stewart McSweyn clocking 3:52.00 in the 1500m and 18-year-old Claudia Hollingsworth breaking the U20 Australian record in a time of 1:59.81 in the 800m final.

Tokyo 2020 Olympians Rose Davies and Isobel Batt-Doyle wrote themselves into the women’s 5000m history books when they became the fourth and fifth Australian women to finish in under 15 minutes.

In the field, Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers (nee McDermott) jumped to first position after clearing 1.99m in the women’s high jump.

The men’s discus throw saw a close second for dual Olympian Matt Denny who threw 65.09m, just 9cm short of first place, New Zealand’s Connor Bell (65.18m).

Rohan Browning won the men’s 200m final in 20.80, 0.27 seconds ahead of Japan’s Towa Uzawa (21.07).

In the women’s 100m hurdles, a tight race saw Aussies Liz Clay and Michelle Jenneke go head to head in the final with Liz taking home the gold in 13.02, 0.1 seconds ahead of Rio 2016 Olympian Michelle (13.12).

Read more here.

Water Polo – Stingers place 6th at World Aquatics Championships

The Aussie Stingers finished their World Aquatics Championships campaign in 6th place after a narrow 8-10 loss to the Netherlands in Doha over the weekend.

Read more about their campaign here.

Artistic Gymnastics – FIG World Cup campaign kicks off

The first World Cup of the season for men’s artistic gymnastics kicked off in Cairo, Egypt over the weekend. The Australian quintet of James Bacueti, Tyson Bull, Clay Mason Stephens, Mitchell Morgans and Vedant Sawant competed on their specialty apparatus in a bid for ranking points to qualify for Paris 2024.

James Bacueti was the highest placed Aussie finishing in 7th position in the finals of the men’s vault with a total score of 13.583, whilst Clay Mason Stephens finished 8th in the finals of the men’s floor exercise with a total score of 13.200.

Table Tennis – World Team Championships group play

Australia's women's and men's teams are off and running in group play at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan, South Korea. Six-time Olympian Jian Fang Lay, Michelle Bromley and Melissa Tapper were in a tight encounter with Kazakhstan, losing 2-3 before a 0-3 loss against Hong Kong.

Jian has both of the pool match wins for Team Australia so far defeating Zauresh Akasheva (KAZ) in the best of five sets format 11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-5 and then Sarvinoz Mirkadirova (KAZ) 11-7, 11-3, 15-13.

Nicholas Lum, Finn Luu and Aditya Sareen have had tough encounters against Finland (0-3) and Denmark (1-3), with 19-year-old Finn Luu recording their only singles victory of the campaign so far against Tobias Rasmussen (DEN) 11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7). They take on France next.

Follow the results and schedule here.

Shooting – Olympic nomination events held in Sydney

Australian rifle, pistol and shotgun sharpshooters descended upon the Sydney International Shooting Centre over the weekend where Australian athletes were vying to increase their nomination score.

Rifle
In the 10m air rifle competition Jack Rossiter set an Australian record in his win on Friday, earning 634.7 event points towards the Paris 2024 nomination leaderboard. He also won the second nomination event on Saturday and gained 633 event points to take a clear lead on the field.

The nomination race is tighter in the women's 10m air rifle after Charlotte Bland took gold on Friday and Emily Cane's gold on Saturday.

See rifle nomination leaderboard here.

Pistol
Dual Olympian Elena Galiabovitch holds a slender lead on the women's 10m air pistol and women's 25 rapid fire pistol leaderboards. She top scored in the first Sydney Cup 10m air pistol nomination event (564 points) and claimed 560 points in the second Sydney Cup nomination event.

Her consistent shooting in the 25m rapid fire pistol at the BISC Cup and Sydney Cup has built a 1709 nomination score so far, a 10-point lead on Ellie Rudder.

In the men's 25m rapid fire pistol Sergei Evglevski top-scored in both Sydney Cup events to lead the rankings three events into the five-event nomination season.

Five-time Olympian Daniel Repacholi occupies top spot on the nomination leaderboard om ther 10m pistol after his Sydney Cup success with two events to go.

See pistol nomination leaderboard here.

Shotgun
Mitchell Iles (381 nomination score) leads James Willett (373) and Thomas Grice (371) on the men's trap Olympic nomination leaderboard after a strong showing at the NSW State Titles.

Laetisha Scanlan's NSW State Titles win moves her into a tie for second on the nomination leaderboard with Catherine Skinner (358 points), behind Penny Smith on 371.

Skeet shooters Paul Adams and Aislin Jones have taken the lead after both achieved the most points from the weekend, 127 and 123 respectively. 

See shotgun nomination leaderboard here.

Hockey – Kookaburras win four from four in FIH Pro League 

Australia’s hockey teams are currently in India competing in the FIH Pro League where they are playing against tough international competition.  

The Kookaburras have won four from four matches so far, including a thrilling 5-4 victory over world number 1 ranked Netherlands, coming from 3 goals down to secure the win in the final minute.

The Hockeyroos wrapped up this leg of the tournament with hard fought losses against against India and the Netherlands.

Read more here.

Tennis – Alex de Minaur runner up at Rotterdam

Alex de Minaur finished runner up in the Rotterdam Open, with only the 2024 Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner (ITA) able to defeat the Aussie.

The Italian recorded a 7-5 6-4 win, however Alex made history to be the first Australian to make the Rotterdam singles final since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004.

Alex entered the final off the back of a straight-sets semi-final win on his 25th birthday, over Grigor Dimitrov (BUL).

The win will see Alex reach his highest ever singles ranking of 9 in the world.

Read more here.

Surfing – Competition heats up at Sunset Beach

All eyes are on the competition at Sunset Beach in Hawaii as the World Surf League Championship Tour continues.

Jack Robinson, Liam O’Brien and Ryan Callinan have all progressed to the quarter-finals, with Laim and Ryan facing off in their matchup.

The women's heats are set to get underway from tomorrow with Molly Picklum, Tyler Wright, Sally Fitzgibbons, Isabella Nichols, Sophie McCulloch and India Robinson all representing Australia.

BMX Racing – Oceania champions crowned in Brisbane

Sienna Pal and Josh Mclean have won the Oceania women's and men's elite Oceania BMX Racing Championships at Brisbane's SX International BMX Centre.

Full results here.