Triple Olympic medallist Eddie Ockenden’s 16 years of playing hockey for Australia has broken another record, while Cameron Smith has won the Australian PGA in his homecoming to highlight the weekend action in Olympic sports.
Hockey
The Kookaburras gave their co-captain and four-time Olympian Eddie Ockenden a match to remember in his 400th international game against India in Adelaide on Sunday.
Eddie is the first Aussie hockey player to appear in 400 representative matches, doing so in front of family and friends, and is just the seventh in the sport’s history to do it.
Feature: Love of hockey keeps Eddie Ockenden going
The team powered home seven goals to India’s four in the match, which included a hat-trick for Blake Govers.
Lachi Sharp got the scoring underway, in his first appearance for the Kookaburras since Tokyo 2020 due to injury management, with a goal of the highest quality.
Australia now leads the five-match series against India 2-0 after coming away with a 5-4 victory in the series opener on Saturday.
The action continues in Adelaide on Wednesday at 6:30pm local time (7:00pm AEDT), followed by a back-to-back on Saturday at 4pm (4:30pm AEDT) and Sunday at 4pm (4:30pm AEDT).
Co-captain of the @Kookaburras Eddie Ockenden is set to make history on Sunday in Adelaide as he reaches the extraordinary milestone of 400 international matches.
— Hockey Australia (@HockeyAustralia) November 25, 2022
Eddie will become the first Australian to reach the incredible feat and only one of a handful worldwide. pic.twitter.com/kRELnBqcsi
Golf
Cameron Smith has had a joyful return home and delighted fans on his way to winning the Australian PGA Championship at the Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane on Sunday.
He entered the final day with a three-stroke lead and, despite a two-hour delay due to a seasonal storms, shot a three-under-par 68 to end the tournament clear (14-under) of his closest rivals Ryo Hisatsune from Japan (11-under) and Jason Scrivener of Australia (11-under).
It’s the third Australian PGA Champs victory for the world no.3 after winning back-to-back in 2017-18 at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast.
Cameron Smith is your @Fortinet #AusPGA Champion 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/JIJtgQkAVD
— PGA of Australia | #VicPGA (@PGAofAustralia) November 27, 2022
All the action heads to Melbourne as the Australian Open gets underway on Thursday at the Victoria Golf Club.
Football
Tokyo 2020 Olyroo Mitchell Duke used a sublime header to score the Socceroos a 1-0 win against Tunisia in the FIFA World Cup group stage on Saturday night.
The victory in Qatar was the Australia’s first at the World Cup since 2010.
Mitchell was one of five Olyroos to play in the Tunisia victory - which includes Harry Souttar, Kye Rowles, Riley McGree and Keanu Baccus.
With one game remaining in their pool, the Socceroos can advance to the final 16 if they get a win or a draw over Denmark. The match will be played at 2am AEDT on Thursday.
Tennis
A fortnight after Australia’s Billie Jean King Cup team reached the final in Spain for the third time in the past 30 years, the Aussie Davis Cup team also made a historic run by making it to the final for the first time in 19 years.
They faced the world's no.1 Davis Cup nation, Croatia, in the semi-final and won the tie 2-1.
After Thanasi Kokkinakis was defeated by Croatia’s Borna Coric 6-4 6-3, Alex de Minaur played a starring role to keep Australia alive with a 6-2 6-2 win over world No.17 Marin Cilic.
Jordan Thompson joined Max Purcell and together they took out the deciding doubles match against Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 6-7(3) 7-5 6-4 to progress to the final.
The last Australian Davis Cup team to make the final included Lleyton Hewitt (now the Davis Cup team captain), Mark Philippoussis, Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge who in 2003 beat Spain 3-1 in Melbourne.
A match-up against Canada was set for the final on Sunday night (AEDT), who boast world no.6 Felix Auger-Aliassime and world no. 18 Denis Shapovalov.
Despite Thanasi’s best efforts, Shapovalov proved to be too good and won 6-2 6-4. Canada performed a clean sweep of the singles matches to claim the tie 2-0, as Alex de Minaur couldn’t stop Auger-Aliassime from winning 6-3 6-4.
Triathlon
Matt Hauser has charged his way to a career-best World Triathlon Series rankings finish, sixth, by picking himself up from falling over in a memorable 2022 Elite Grand Final debut in Abu Dhabi.
The 24-year-old Gold Coaster had a tumble early in the run leg, slipping on the wet road surface, but recovered to produce a dramatic finish in fifth place – elevating him to sixth overall for the 2022 season in the world rankings.
Matt, the 2017 World Junior champion who graduated to the elite field this year after bronze in the Under 23s last year, ran past New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde in the final 400m of the 10km run to rob him of the chance to win the overall crown.
The Tokyo 2020 triathlete had the best World Triathlon Series season point score for an elite Aussie male since Jake Birtwhistle’s third-place finish in 2018.
Beach Volleyball
Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett finished third in the Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Torquay on Sunday.
Going against the Portuguese duo of Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos, Chris and Paul forced them to take an early timeout after racing to a 7-3 lead in the first set. The Aussies held on for most of the set, taking closing it out 21-18.
The second set followed a similar script, with Australia jumping out to an early lead. Portugal ran out of answers as Chris and Paul closed them out 21-15 in straight sets.
“It was a really good performance for most of the day,” Chris said. “Paul’s serve was clutch at the end and put a lot of pressure on them.
“To come away with the bronze medal at your home event is really special and I am sure we’ll look back at this season really fondly in the future.”
“We’re super happy right now,” Paul said. “It was a tough game, Portugal is a great team and had a great tournament.
“There’s always a lot of nerves in a medal match, especially for bronze … to be able to stay composed and have that run at the end and come out with the win makes us really happy. Chris played well today and showed a lot of leadership.”
As they took the opportunity to recognise the support of the public that encouraged them all week in Torquay, Chris and Paul also highlighted the importance of bringing top-level international events to Australia to inspire the next generation of volleyball players.
“It’s something that I didn’t get to see when I was growing up, so I didn’t get into the sport until a lot later,” Paul said.
"So for all these kids of seven or eight to be here and see this stuff and get inspired is awesome. It just bodes really well for the future of Australian beach volleyball.”
“When you look at the venue here this weekend, it is phenomenal,” Chris added.
“We just hope that the event will keep growing from strength-to-strength and hopefully we can attract the world’s best here every year.”
The Great Ocean Road Beach Volleyfest continues right through to Sunday 4 December, with the Elite 16 tournament starting on Tuesday.
Cycling – BMX Racing & Road
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Saya Sakakibara and Max Cairns have been crowned the 2022 Superclass BMX Racing National Champions at the AusCycling BMX Racing National Championships in Launceston on Sunday.
For Saya it completes the achievement of winning back-to-back superclass women’s titles, which she did by going undefeated in the motos and in the final.
It’s the first time Max, the 26-year-old from the Park Orchards BMX club in Victoria, has become the national champion.
While in the National Road Series, also in Tasmania, Maeve Plouffe won the third and final stage on Sunday ahead of her taking off overseas for the WorldTour.
Athletics
World and Commonwealth champion javelin thrower Kelsey-Lee Barber has been named the sportswoman of the year at the 2022 Canberra Sport Awards.
At the world champs in Oregon, USA this year she became Australia’s first back-to-back athletics world champion since Cathy Freeman in 1999.
Kelsey-Lee rose to the occasion and threw a mammoth 66.91m for the win, a better throw than what she used to secure the world champion gold medal in 2019.
