Penny Smith has taken on a field of Olympic and world champions in trap shooting and won, plus Kaylee McKeown has broken a four-year-old backstroke world record at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre to highlight the weekend in sport.
Shooting
Australia's Penny Smith won the gold medal in the women's trap shotgun event at the ISSF World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
Penny's nerves of steel got her through a tough competition to win her third individual World Cup gold medal against some of the world’s best.
She shot 23 out of 25 targets in her semi-final to progress to the four-women medal match. With fourth place and the bronze medal decided, Penny was up against Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist Zuzana Stefecekova from Slovakia to battle it out for the gold and silver medals.
They could not be split in regulation during the medal match with both women equal on 28 targets. A sudden death shoot-off was required to determine who was taking home the gold, with Penny outlasting Stefecekova.
"I shot a really good semi for a 23 and probably the medal match was a little bit rough but it's never over until the last shot's fired." Penny said.
"It was a little bit nerve-racking out there I guess and the nerves were rising but I just had to keep my composure and keep my routine and that’s what I did."
Swimming
Kaylee McKeown's accomplishments in the women's 200m backstroke, which include being the current Olympic and world champion, now features the world record.
At the NSW State Championships Kaylee swam the 200m in a time of 2:03.14, shaving 0.21 seconds off the previous mark set by American Regan Smith in 2019.
It means she is now the world record holder in the 100m and 200m backstroke.
Golf
Min Woo Lee and Cam Davis have shown they very much belong among the world's best PGA golfers, finishing in a tie for sixth at The Players Championship in Florida.
Entering the fourth and final round on Monday both players were within striking distance of Scottie Scheffler on top spot at 14-under, with Min Woo at 12-under and Cam at 10-under.
A slow start from Scheffler and a birdie on the first hole for Min Woo gave the Aussie a share of the lead at the beginning of his day.
Then not much else went the way of either Aussie for the rest of the round, as Min Woo’s fourth round finished as a four-over 76 and Cam's a two-over 74.
Athletics
Jess Hull has led a record-breaking night at the Sydney Track Classic in setting a women's 3000m Oceania record to win the Australian title.
She created a 70m gap between herself and her nearest competitor with three and a half laps to go, eventually winning by a margin of almost 20 seconds.
"To run with a crowd like this was incredible. I actually couldn't hear my cues in my head because of the crowd cheering but it was absolutely them that carried me to that record tonight," Jess said.
"I really wanted to test my fitness so I was going for that record from the start. Typically, I always run the US indoor season and I always get a good start. I really wanted to pick a race and test and see where I was at and this was the perfect opportunity to do that before nationals later this month."
Read more on the Sydney Track Classic.
Fencing
Australian junior sabreur Veronika Vaselava has climbed to fifth overall in the international junior rankings with a silver medal at the Asian Junior Fencing Championships in Uzbekistan.
It's the second silver medal she has won in international competition after taking second place at the Batumi Junior World Cup. On both ocassions Veronika came up against Luisa Fernanda Herrera Lara in the gold medal match. In Uzbekistan Lara had the backing of the home crowd to rise to the gold medal.
Tennis
Jordan Thompson has defeated world no.3 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round of the Indian Wells tournament in California, USA.
He grinded out a 7-6(0), 4-6, 7-6(5) win in just over two and a half hours at the ATP 1000 Masters event.
In a great show of persistence, Jordan had lost his prior 10 matches against top-10 opponents. He beat a top-10 ranked player for the first time since 2017.
Jason Kubler is the only other Australian to advance to the third round in the singles draw at Indian Wells, his second-round match against Grigor Dimitrov was cut short with Dimitrov retiring at 2-6 7-6(5) 3-0.
Up next for Jordan and Jason today in the round of 32 is qualifier Alejandro Tabilo (CHI) and no.14 seed Frances Tiafoe (USA) respectively.
Hockey
The Kookaburras have given current world champions Germany and hosts India a big fight while blooding young talent in their weekend FIH Pro League matches.
After playing matches in Hobart last week again Argentina and Spain, they travelled to India and went down 1-0 on Saturday to Germany and 5-4 to India on Sunday.
In the Germany game Hayden Beltz, Anand Gupte, Ben Staines and Davis Atkin all made their Kookaburras debut. It was a family affair for Olympian Josh Beltz and Hayden, as the two brothers played their first senior international game together in front of a packed crowd.
Australia had a chance to send the match into a shootout when they won a penalty corner in the final minute, to respond to Germany's 8th minute goal, but Germany held on.
Then 24 hours after Ben Staines made his international debut he found himself on the scoresheet against India. However a hat-trick from Harmanpreet and some desperate Indian defending late on prevented the Kookaburras from taking any points out of the highly spirited contest.
The Kookaburras now have a rest day before a second encounter against Germany on Tuesday 14 March.
Short Track Speed Skating
Brendan Corey has come away from the Short Track Speed Skating world championships in Seoul, South Korea with strong results.
His best finish was 6th in the 1500m, and in the 1000m Brendan placed 6th.
Sailing
Australia's Matt Wearn, the reigning Olympic gold medallist in the ILCA 7 class, has won the opening race of the ILCA European Championships in the ILCA 7 in Andora, Italy.
Matt, the winner of the 2018 and 2019 European championships, mastered the light, shifty winds and strong current that flummoxed so many others on a long day one.
Because of conditions just the one race of the planned two was sailed. Matt shares the lead with reigning ILCA 7 world champion Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (FRA) from the red fleet and 2020 world champion Philipp Buhl (GER) from the yellow fleet.
Ethan McAullay is the next-best placed Australian in seventh place, followed by Finn Alexander in 25th place. There was no racing for the women’s ILCA 6 class with organisers forced to abandon the day following the one ILCA 7 race.
