Tokyo 2020 BMX freestyle Olympic champion Logan Martin has made the perfect finish to 2022 by winning his home BMX Freestyle World Cup, and Valentino Guseli has become the first Aussie to win a snowboard big air World Cup to highlight the weekend in Olympic sports.
Cycling – BMX Freestyle Park
Logan Martin is the 2022 BMX Freestyle World Cup series champion after putting down a scintillating final run at Urban Sport Fest on the Gold Coast on Sunday.
He entered the final World Cup event of the year sitting in second place on the overall standings, needing a top display in front of a home crowd filled with friends and family to win the event and the overall title.
The signs were positive when Logan Martin qualified first for the Sunday final, but mistakes on his first run of the final meant he was down to his last chance with his second run – with the overall World Cup series leader Anthony Jeanjean (FRA) occupying the Gold Coast World Cup top spot on a score of 95.30 with only Logan’s last run to come.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist powered through the pressure and delivered a clean run to score 96.90 and to claim the title.
Three other Aussie men also qualified for the men’s elite BMX Freestyle World Cup final, which doubled as a Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying event, with Josh Matthews, Jaie Toohey and Jake Wallwork finishing 7th, 9th and 12th respectively.
In the women’s elite field Sarah Nicki, Anais Prince and Mylee Toohey competed for Australia but fell short of the final. Natalya Diehm could not compete due to injury.
Snowboard - Big Air
Teen snowboard prodigy Valentino Guseli has created history in Canada, becoming the first Australian to win a World Cup big air event. At 17 years of age, the victory also makes him the youngest ever male to win World Cup gold for Australia in any discipline.
He is now the only three-discipline star at open age level, having won medals in the big air and slopestyle disciplines and having placed sixth in the halfpipe at Beijing 2022.
In the final Val had trouble landing his first jump, a backside triple cork, but recovered in his second run to land an outrageously stylish, clean frontside double cork 1440 that earned him 85.50 points and a shot at the podium if he could produce another high scoring third final jump.
For his final jump he had another attempt at his backside triple cork 1620, this time stomping the landing to earn a score of 87 points and a combined score of 172.50.
“Oh my goodness, I am so hyped right now,” Val said.
“It’s been a long and very bumpy road the last three years trying to work my way to some podiums and I have finally got a win, and I am so hyped, I am hoping to just keep it rolling to the next comps.
“Thank you to everyone that’s helped me up to this point.”
Freestyle Skiing - Moguls
Jakara Anthony has continued her amazing start to the season, making it back-to-back World Cup victories in Idre Fjäll, Sweden to open the season.
The 2022 Olympic champion was dominant, leading from start to finish, moving through all three rounds of the competition in first place to get the sixth World Cup victory of her career.
“What a way to kick off the season,” Jakara said.
“I am really proud of how I have been able to progress over the days we have been on the course, there has been a lot of figuring out to do and a lot of changes to make, and I think I am making progress in the right direction.”
In the men’s event, three Australian’s again made finals, led by 2018 Olympic silver medallist Matt Graham who continued his strong comeback from injury with a sixth place, finish, with teammate Cooper Woods narrowly behind in seventh and Jackson Harvey in eleventh place in just his second World Cup start.
Rugby 7s
A week after the Aussie women’s sevens side defeated New Zealand in the Dubai final, New Zealand flipped the script in South Africa to give Australia a 31-14 defeat in the final.
Wet conditions made for the biggest change compared to last week’s matchup, with the Aussies only able to score a couple of tries through Madison Ashby and Demi Hayes once the Black Ferns put the result beyond doubt.
Our Aussie women had a blistering start to the Cape Town 7s, piling on 157 points across three pool matches and a quarter-final against South Africa, Spain, Ireland and Great Britain respectively - all without conceding a point.
Also in Cape Town, Australia’s men’s team finished tenth after a loss at the hands of France in the ninth-place playoff.
Athletics
School boy sprint sensation Gout Gout has broken the Australian Under 16 200m record twice in the one day at the 2022 Australian All Schools Championships in Adelaide.
The 14-year-old from Ipswich, Queensland soared to victory in 21.14 into a headwind (-0.1) in the final, just two hours after breaking the Australian record with a 21.15 (+1.8) run in his heat.
Gout’s new record is 0.3 seconds faster than the previous record held by Jordon Shelley in 2013, and the All Schools gold medal became his after crossing the line more than half a second in front of South Australia’s Andrew Maenda who finished the race in 21.81.
Speaking after the race, Gout said the records came as a shock despite having broken the Australian Under 16 100m records twice in October and November.
“It feels good. I wasn’t expecting it but to come out here and do two in a day feels good,” Gout said.
“I have got my 100m time down from 10.95 to 10.57 and now the 200m is dropping. I definitely prefer the 200m - I love the feeling of going around the bend.”
