Beijing 2022 snowboarder Valentino Guseli has recorded a podium finish for the fourth-straight World Cup event to highlight the weekend in sport.
Snowboard – Halfpipe
Valentino Guseli has won a third World Cup silver medal in the space of eight days, this time at the halfpipe final in Calgary, Canada.
The 82 points from his last run in the final gave the 17-year-old his sixth career World Cup podium placing. Finishing ahead of him was Ruka Hirano (JPN) on 88.50 points.
The halfpipe competition in Calgary was the final World Cup tour event of the season, with the podium performance moving Val into second place in the end of season rankings.
He will be back in action today in Calgary, competing in the slopestyle World Cup. Val, the owner of the 2022-23 Big Air Crystal Globe, is still in the running for the overall FIS World Cup Crystal Globe title - which incorporates the halfpipe, slopestyle and big air disciplines.
Skateboard – Park
The men’s Park World Championships in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates came to its conclusion with a hotly contested final featuring Aussie Tokyo 2020 Olympic stars.
Kieran Woolley finished just shy of a podium placing, coming fourth on 89.50 points and behind bronze medallist Pedro Barros (BRA) on 90.00.
In the first Paris 2024 qualifying event for park skaters, Keegan Palmer finished eighth after early falls in all three of his final runs.
Both Keegan and Kieran put on a show in the semi-finals, when they qualified for the final in second and third respectively.
During the event Kieran showed a great act of sportsmanship for Brazil's Luigi Cini. Cini's skateboard broke during competition and Kieran was quick to hand off his skateboard for Cini to continue on his run.
On the women’s side, Australia’s best performers were Ruby Trew and Arisa Trew who finished 10th and 20th – falling short of the top-eight final. Arisa started the competition strongly by topping all qualifiers to reach the quarter-finals.
Poppy Olsen finished 30th after scoring 29.43 in the quarter-finals.
Hockey
The Hockeyroos have started their FIH Pro League season on a positive note, recording back-to-back wins against China and Germany at the Sydney Olympic Park Hockey Centre.
Friday’s win against China went right down to the wire with a shootout required to break a 1-1 deadlock, a shootout the Aussies won 3-1.
Goalkeeper Jocelyn Bartram kept out three of China’s shootout attempts and made some important saves throughout the match.
Then against Germany on Sunday two goals within 60 seconds from Rosie Malone powered the Hockeyroos to a 3-0 victory.
Rosie, who was named player of the match in both games, struck twice in the 24th minute to capitalise on a first half dominated by Australia. Grace Stewart added to the scoresheet with a late goal.
“We have prepared really well as a team and everyone playing as a unit allows me to keep my scoring run going,” Rosie said.
“We know Germany has a really strong midfield, so winning that battle was crucial for us and we did that today.”
In the Germany game the Hockeyroos wore a special Indigenous uniform in the First Nations themed match, with the artwork produced by Kevin Bydner and Atlanta 1996 Hockeyroo and Olympic champion Nova Peris.
The Hockeyroos are back in action tonight for their second match against China at 6.30pm AEDT. They’ll then get a day off before closing out their Sydney matches with a Wednesday game against Germany at 6:30pm AEDT.
Monobob
Bree Walker has secured her second World Cup medal of the season, sliding to silver in Innsbruck, Austria.
To start the event she recorded the third-fastest opening run, 54.71 seconds. In her second and final run, the Beijing 2022 Olympian improved to own the second-fastest time of the round (54.68 seconds). The two-run time, 1:49.38, was 0.18 seconds behind the gold medallist Lisa Buckwitz (GER).
“I couldn’t have asked for a better way to round out my World Cup season with the second place here in Igls,” the 30-year-old from Queensland said.
“I really enjoy sliding here. It’s easy to make it down this track, but sometimes hard to make it down fast because the slightest mistake can cost you so much time, so that provides a great challenge.
“I’m also very happy to be improving on my results from race-to-race. The competition in monobob this year has really levelled up which makes for fierce racing, which is always fun.
“It’s been a big transition season for me. My new coach Pierre Lueders has helped me take my driving to a whole new level, which has been such an exciting process.”
She will now join up with Sarah Blizzard to compete in the two-woman bobsleigh at the Europe Cup in Winterberg, Germany on the 18th of February.
Short Tack Speed Skating
A week after an outstanding performance from Brendan Corey to finish sixth in the 1500m short track speed skating World Cup in Germany, he’s gone and set an Australian record by coming fifth in the 1000m World Cup A Final in Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
