Freestyle Skiing - Aerials

Two-time aerials world champion Laura Peel has recaptured top form, taking out a World Cup for the first time since January 2022.

Persistence paid off for Laura with her triple flips in scoring 109.15 points, the highest-scoring jump of the season, on her lay-full-full to win the event ahead of Ashley Caldwell (USA) on 93.06 points and Anastasiya Novosad (UKR) on 90.59 points.

“I am so happy and honestly a bit relieved,” the eight-time World Cup winner said.

Epic golden performance from Flying Kangaroo Laura Peel!! 🥇@OWI_AUS @AUSOlympicTeam https://t.co/ggMAg5YzbJ
— Snow Australia (@SnowAust) January 22, 2023

“It was a really tough start to the season, I wasn’t jumping how I wanted to in the competition, but I had been training well, and today I was able to do my training jumps in the competition, and I am so happy and just really relieved as well.”

Danielle Scott finished fourth on 89.18 points and Australia's Airleigh Frigo finished 12th in her first World Cup final.

The action continues on to the Deer Valley World Cup on the 3rd of February.

Hockey

Blake Govers and the Kookaburras had a day out in India as they completed a resounding 9-2 victory over South Africa, cementing top spot in their pool and a direct passage to the World Cup quarter-finals.

The 26-year-old scored four goals, all of which came in a stunning first 20 minutes, to take his already phenomenal goals to games tally to 126 goals from 133 internationals.

With the match carrying extra significance, as it was Tim Howard’s 100th international match, the Kookaburras made sure it would be a night to remember.

A first-half flurry saw Tom Craig, Jake Harvie and Daniel Beale all joining Blake on the scoresheet to build a 7-1 lead.

“It feels good to get that top spot and have maximum time to get ready for a quarter-final,” Blake said.

“It was a good start to the game. When you get an easy touch like that for the first goal it kind of flowed on from there. I probably should have got a few more but will have to settle on four.”

“Reflecting on the performance, I think we can take out how quickly we can be dominant and maintain it. Then when do we keep going and when do we stop and start holding onto possession a bit more to make it a bit easier on our legs.

The Kookaburras can now look ahead to a knockout quarter-final against Spain on Tuesday 24 January at 10pm AEDT.

Find out more about the Kookaburras World Cup campaign here.

Snowboard - Halfpipe

Scotty James is a Laax Open silver medallist after poor visibility at the event in Switzerland affected the competition.

The night-time final was cancelled due to weather, with the results from the qualifying used to determine the final placings.

“It’s always amazing to ride here in Laax in front of this crowd. For me on the podium it’s a little bit bittersweet, because I would have loved to have rode tonight but I’m also happy to be able to come away with second place,” Scotty said.

He delivered two high quality runs in qualifying, his best a huge score of 95 points. Finishing just ahead of James by just 0.25 of a point was Ruka Hirano from Japan, who became the winner of the event. Fellow Aussie Valentino Guseli finished fourth, his best ever World Cup halfpipe result.

After two World Cup events this season Scotty is sitting comfortably first in the standings on 180 points, 64 points clear of Swiss rider Jan Scherrer in second place.

In the women’s halfpipe event, two-time Olympian Emily Arthur also had an equal personal best World Cup finish of sixth place.

Monobob

A week after Bree Walker finished 5th in the monobob at Altenberg in Germany, she has risen to a podium placing at the same venue over the weekend on the eve of the world championships.

Bree won bronze, her first World Cup podium finish of the season, with two consistent runs of 1:00.92 and 1:00.97. Her two-run combined time was 1.28 seconds behind event winner Kaillie Humphries of the USA, with German Laura Nolte in second.

It is her best result on the Altenberg track, which had caused her trouble in previous years. She heads to St Moritz in Switzerland for the IBSF World Championships next weekend.

Rugby 7s

The World Rugby Sevens Series descended upon Hamilton, New Zealand over the weekend with the Aussie women and men finishing 3rd and 5th respectively.

The women’s side started the tournament hot, sweeping their pool matches against Japan (26-14), Canada (33-7) and France (43-0).

They took care of business in the quarter-finals against Great Britain (38-0), which marked the 300th match for the Australian women’s Sevens side – the first women’s team in the international series to achieve it.

A match-up with the USA in the semi-finals proved to be a challenging contest, with the Americans building a 10-7 lead in the opening half. A scoreless second half relegated Australia to the bronze playoff.

It didn’t take long for the points to start flowing again, as they scored 33 on Ireland and conceded 17 to beat them to bronze.

The Aussie men got off to a positive start in the pool matches with comfortable wins against Great Britain (28-14) and Tonga (36-7), and a narrow loss to the hosts New Zealand (19-21).

They too had to face the USA in the knockout stages and two tries to Dietrich Roache couldn’t stop the United States running out 24-12 winners in the quarter-finals.

Facing Fiji in the fifth-place semi-final (W 26-19) and Ireland in the fifth-place playoff (W 26-17) resulted in the Aussie men stringing wins together to end the tournament.

The men’s and women’s World Rugby Sevens Series shifts to Sydney, starting this Friday at Allianz Stadium in Sydney. Get your tickets here.

Tennis

Alex de Minaur is set to take on nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic tonight (7pm AEDT) in the fourth round of the Australian Open following his 7-6 6-2 6-1 win over Benjamin Bonzi (FRA) on Saturday inside Rod Laver Arena.

The Aussie defeated the world no.48 in a little over two hours to make the fourth round at Melbourne Park for the second-consecutive year. No stranger to taking on the world’s top 10, Alex has won three of his last six against them – including a victory over Rafael Nadal (ESP) at the United Cup earlier this month.

More Aussies were also in action over the weekend in the doubles draws. Storm Hunter (nee Sanders) is the last Australian standing in the women’s doubles after the world no.12 doubles player and Elise Mertens (BEL) defeated Timea Babos (HUN) and Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) 6-3 6-3. They move on to a third-round clash with Viktorija Golubic (SUI) and Monica Niculescu (BEL) to be played on Rod Laver Arena tonight, after the de Minaur v Djokovic match.

It’s a different story in the men’s doubles with five Aussies still alive in the draw. Alex Bolt and Luke Saville (WC) played great tennis to knock out the no.4 seeds Nikola Mektic (CRO) and Mate Pavic (CRO) 7-5 6-3. They’ll meet fellow Aussie John Peers, playing with Andreas Mies (GER), in the third round.

An all-Aussie quarter-final is about to go down in the mixed doubles. Wildcards Maddison Inglis and Jason Kubler defeated former world no.1s Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL) and Mladenovic (FRA) 6-4 7-5 to get through. Their quarter-final opponent is yet to be determined, but guaranteed to be Australians.

Sam Stosur's glittering career came to an end on Saturday with a tight 6-4 3-6 [7-10] mixed doubles first-round loss with Matt Ebden against Demi Schuurs (NED) and Mektic (CRO).

Read more on the latest Aussie news and results here.

Weekend Wrap: Laura Peel wins Aerials World Cup, Kookaburras surge into World Cup quarters and more