Jess Fox crowned double Canoe World Cup Champion, Chloe Covell wins Street League Skateboard title on home soil, a World Cup gold and silver for BMX racer Saya Sakakibara and topping the World Cup swimming medal table headline the weekend in Olympic sport.
Canoe Slalom - Fox wins overall C1 and K1 World Cup Crowns
Jess Fox has claimed the women's overall K1 World Cup crown and the C1 World Cup crown over the weekend, after winning back-to-back gold medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup final.
Held at the 2024 Olympic venue in Vaires-Sur-Marne on the outskirts of Paris, the banks were lined with hundreds of children who provided a taste of what Jess and her teammates could expect from fans at next year's Games.
“It was amazing to put down that run in the (C1) final. I had some issues with penalties in gates one and two, so to finish off strong today, to take the win... amazing weekend," Jess said.
“It’s been an amazing season to take the overall (crown) in the C1 as well (as the K1). It’s never easy to line up and race, especially with this long season and big program and I am exhausted today, so I am really happy.
“It shows I’ve been consistent throughout the season, there’s always some ups and downs at certain World Cups, but I’ve felt good, I’ve raced well. The standard of women’s paddling is always increasing, and it’s never a given you know, you always have to show up.
“It’s been a near perfect season, but there are still things to improve on and things to work on. I’ve never raced a test event before in the lead-up to a Games, so this was different, this was new, and it was great to get that first look and that first feel on the Paris course.”
On the final day of competition, Jess also backed up her gold medal performances with a bronze in the women's kayak cross to finish third in the overall standings for the event which will make its Olympic debut in Paris.
Other Aussies in action included Noemie Fox who finished fifth and Tim Anderson who finished sixth in the kayak cross. In the men's K1 final, dual Olympian Lucien Delfour delivered a strong final performance finishing sixth overall, while in the men's C1 Kaylen Bassett was the best ranked Aussie finishing 20th overall.
Skateboarding - Park & Street - Covell wins SLS Sydney & Wilson makes World Champs final
Chloe Covell has won the inaugural Sydney Street League Skateboarding (SLS) event, nailing her final run to complete a come from behind victory.
Contested at Sydney Olympic Park in a decked out Ken Rosewall Arena, Chloe needed to score 7.5 in her final run to overtake Brazil's Olympic silver medallist Rayssa Leal into first place. The Aussie received a 9.0 from the judges to take the win, her second consecutive win on the SLS tour at just her fourth SLS event.
In Rome at the World Skateboarding Tour 2023 Park World Championships, Keefer Wilson competed in his first career World Championships final, with the 17-year-old finishing eighth in the men's final.
Keefer's best of his three runs in the final was 64.67, unable to match his semi-finals qualifying score of a massive 86.36.
Arisa Trew and Ruby Trew both advanced to the semi-finals, finishing 13th (81.66) and 14th (81.47) respectively.
Cycling - BMX Racing - Golden weekend for Sakakibara in Argentina
Saya Sakakibara has achieved back-to-back podium performances at the UCI BMX World Cup in Santiago Del Estero, claiming silver in stage seven and gold in stage eight.
Saya is currently leading the World Cup standings on 2775 points, with two stages to go on 13-14 October.
Other Aussies in action over the two days of competition included Lauren Reynolds, Erin Lockwood, Bodi Turner, Aston Wypych-Coles, Max Cairns, and Jack Davis.
Keep up to date with AusCycling.
Swimming - Australia tops medal tally at World Cup opening in Berlin
Australia has made a dominant start to the first leg of the World Cup season, topping the medal tally with nine gold, eight silver and two bronze medals.
Kaylee McKeown was unstoppable, winning gold in the women's 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke - plus a fourth gold medal in the women's 200m medley.
Isaac Cooper (men's 50m freestyle), Ben Armbruster (men's 50m butterfly), Brendon Smith (men's 400m medley) and Lani Pallister (women's 800m freestyle) added to the gold in their individual events.
The women's 4x100m freestyle relay produced another win for Australia with Leah Neale, Alexandria Perkins, Bronte Campbell and Cate Campbell more than five seconds faster than second-place Hungary.
The second leg of the World Cup moves to Athens, Greece on the 13th-15th of October.
Beach Volleyball - Aussies launch World Champs campaigns
Australian beach volleyballers launched their World Championship campaigns in Tlaxcala, Mexico, with the winner of the tournament securing a quota for Paris 2024.
Tokyo Olympic silver medallists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar have won their first two matches, their second a come-from-behind 17-21 21-17 15-6 victory over Spaniards Liliana and Paula.
Thomas Hodges and Zac Schubert have also started strongly with two straight set wins over teams from Portugal and Ecuador, with the number two ranked team in the world of Ahman and Hellvig from Sweden awaiting them in their final pool game.
The other Australian men's pairs of Carracher/Nicolaides and McHugh/Burnett are still searching for their first wins of the World Championships.
Follow the results with Volleyball Australia.
Sailing - Silver at KiteFoil World Series Austria
Breiana Whitehead won KiteFoil World Series silver after a strong display in Austria.
Battling the winds on the Traunsee lake, Breiana established a lead of the women's fleet before world champion Lauriane Nolot (FRA) won the final two races of the medal series to leap to the top of the podium.
Gymnastics - Artistic - Georgia Godwin top 20 at World Champs
Georgia Godwin contested her fourth World Championships individual all-around final, finishing 20th in Antwerp, Belgium.
It comes a week after Georgia and the Aussie women's Artistic Gymnastics team qualified for Paris 2024, the first time they've achieved it since London 2012.
Tennis - de Minaur and Purcell spring major upset at the Masters
Alex de Minaur and Max Purcell have produced what could go down as the biggest shock of the 2023 Shangai Masters, defeating the no.1 men's doubles seed in the first round.
Max and Alex took Ivan Dodig (CRO) and Austin Krajicek (USA) into a match tiebreaker and played some clutch tennis to prevail 6-7(3) 6-1 [11-9] against the Grand Slam champions.
Adding extra intrigue to the win, the match was only Max and Alex's first as doubles partners since the 2017 Australian Open. They now advance to the final 16 to meet Robin Haase (NED) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE).
Golf - Sarah Kemp nears first LPGA Tour win
Sarah Kemp got within striking distance of what could have been a first LPGA Tour victory, finishing fourth at The Ascendant, The Colony, in Texas USA.
South Korea's Hyo Joo Kim led for the entire tournament and finished 13-under, with Sarah (8-under) consisently one of Kim's top challengers across the four rounds in the 73-player field.
It is Sarah's third top-10 finish in 2023 and she remains a chance of qualifying for the season-ending Tour Championship.
Further back in the field in Texas were Sarah Jane Smith (T-13th) and Hannah Green (T-31st).
Short Track Skating - National champions crowned in Melbourne
Hyojin Kim has dominated at the 2023 Australian Open Short Track Championships to become the overall national women's champion, while Ihan Yoo emerged from two main challengers to become the overall men's national champion on Sunday.
