Another week, another title for the Aussie women’s rugby sevens team to resume a sensational start to the 2023-24 season, plus Tokyo 2020 Olympian Kiana Elliott has broken Australian weightlifting records to highlight the weekend in Olympic sports.
Rugby Sevens – Women continue winning start to season, men runners up in Cape Town
The Aussie Rugby Sevens Teams both made finals appearances in Cape Town, South Africa with the women’s team winning back-to-back gold and the men’s side claiming second place.
The women’s side remained undefeated in the 2023-24 season, winning by an average margin of 30 points in Cape Town on their way to the final against France.
A tight affair, they were forced to play a player down against France in the second half with Maddi Levi sent from the field for high contact, as well as dealing with injuries to Demi Hayes and Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea.
Heading into the final minutes, a try from 22-year-old rookie Kaitlin Shave gave Australia an unassailable lead and the women’s team's first Cape Town Sevens title 29-26.
The Aussie men rode convincing wins against Samoa (27-7) and Canada (26-7) in the group stage to the finals, where they went past South Africa (28-0) and Fiji (24-7) in the quarters and semis.
In the final Argentina proved too strong, racing out to a 28-0 half-time lead and a 45-12 result to claim the title.
The World Sevens Series will return in January 2024, when the world’s best head to Australia for the Perth Sevens between 26-28 January.
Beach Volleyball – Top four finish in Doha
The women’s beach volleyball pair of Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy finished in the top 4 of the Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha, Qatar.
The Tokyo 2020 silver medallists met their match in the semi-final, going down 2:0 (21-19, 21-13) to the USA duo of Nuss/Kloth.
The pair fought for bronze against the Brazilian side of Ana Patrícia/Duda in a close match where they eventually went down in three sets, 21-13, 18-21, 15-12.
Badminton – Women’s doubles pair with top-four Masters finish
Women's doubles duo Angela Yu and Setyana Mapasa enjoyed a deep run at the Guwahati Masters in India in making the semi-finals.
Their tournament started with two wins against pairs from the host nation, followed by a tough three-set encounter with Indonesia's no.4 seeded Meilysa Trias Puspitasari and Rachel Allessya Rose in the quarter-finals (21-13 16-21 21-14).
Angela and Setyana, the no.6 seeds, had their run haulted in the semi-finals by Shuo Yun Sung (TPE) and Chien Hui Yu (TPE) despite a second set that could have gone either way (15-21 19-21).
Weightlifting – New Australian records as Pacific Games stars take on Grand Prix in Qatar
Four Aussies have completed their Doha Grand Prix campaign in Qatar over the weekend, recording top-25 finishes among the world’s best, with Commonwealth Games champion Eileen Cikamatana still to come.
Kiana Elliott (women’s 59kg) set new Australian records for both the snatch (96kg) and overall (208kg), also notching a personal best 112kg in the clean and jerk, finishing 16th overall.
Triple Pacific Games gold medallists Kyle Bruce (men’s 89kg) and Jacqueline Nichele (women’s 71kg) finished 15th and 23rd respectively, while Oliver Saxton (men’s 89kg) placed 16th.
Eileen gets her chance to compete on Tuesday 12 December from 11pm AEDT, watch live here and keep up to date with the Australian Weightlifting Federation.
Sailing – Olympic quotas up for grabs at Sail Sydney
Today marks the beginning of the Olympic classes competition at Sail Sydney, where sailors from around Oceania battle it out for a chance to qualify their country for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Australia has already secured quota spots for several boat classes based on results at 2023 World Championships, but can secure the remaining quotas for those classes yet to qualify; including women’s windsurfing (iQFoiL), men’s kite (formula kite), men’s skiff (49er), mixed two-person dinghy (470) and multihull (Nacra 17).
Perth’s Nia Jerwood competed in the women’s 470 class at Tokyo 2020, so when the class changed to a mixed class for Paris and her Tokyo crew Monique de Vries retired from Olympic sailing, Nia had a decision to make.
At Sail Sydney Nia will be looking to secure the Olympic nation mixed 470 quota with new crew Conor Nicholas.
“We are expecting it to be a shifty and tough racetrack,” Nia said.
“We are confident after our result at Sail Melbourne, but we need to control what we can control and use our speed to our advantage.”
Keep up to date with Australian Sailing.
Skateboarding - Street – Aussie Team arrived for World Championships
Aussie skaters are gearing up to compete for Paris 2024 Olympic qualification points at the 2023 Street World Championships in Tokyo.
A Team of 11 is in Japan practicing ahead of the women’s qualifiers starting on Wednesday 13 December and the men’s qualifiers starting on Thursday 14 December.
Thirteen-year-old Chloe Covell is currently ranked 5th in the Olympic World Skate Rankings, meaning she will skip the qualifiers and is pre-seeded directly in the quarter-finals on Friday 15 December.
The event will be livestreamed on the Olympic Channel and keep up to date with Skate Australia.
