Swimming – Marathon swimmer Chelsea Gubecka earns quota spot for the Olympics

Dolphin Chelsea Gubecka has won Australia’s first medal at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Japan, claiming silver in the 10km open water event.

The achievement also secured a quota spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

In a beautifully controlled strategic race, Chelsea positioned herself in the lead pack for all of the six-lap Fukuoka course to hold on and claim her maiden world championship medal in a time of 2:02:38. Germany’s Leonie Beck won gold and USA’s Katie Grimes took the bronze.

“My big goal has been about being on the podium at these Worlds and I am very excited to have won a quota spot for the Paris Olympics, but it will sink in more when my ticket to Paris is ratified,” Chelsea said.

“This is my sixth World Aquatics Championships. I've raced 10 kilometres every single time, so I think it's a long time coming, but I'm just sort of starting to get into my group now. I feel like I'm a little bit older and getting wiser by the second.

“I think over the years, I have learned to embrace the challenge of racing and also how to relax, to keep the heart rate down and stay very calm.”

Read more here.

Sailing – Wearn sails to gold in Marseille

Matt Wearn has secured gold in the men’s ILCA 7 dinghy at the Paris 2024 Olympic Test Event in Marseille, France, with an emphatic win in the crucial double points medal race sealing the result.

“It feels great. It has been a while since I stepped on to the top step of the podium so it's nice to get it done here,” Matt said after being met by a jubilant crowd.

“Obviously, a great confidence boost for 12-months’ time, as well. It’s the first win with Rafa (new coach Rafael Trujillo Villar) too, so I think for the both of us it cements the work we have been doing together.”

His Australian sailing teammates Grae Morris (fourth in the iQFOiL), Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine (tenth in the 49erFX) and Jim Colley and Shaun Connor (tenth in the 49er) will all leave France knowing they are more than capable of mixing it with the very best at the Olympic competition venue.

Next up is the 2023 Sailing World Championships, where racing will run from 11-20 August in The Hague, The Netherlands. Nearly 50 Australians are set to compete there across all 10 Olympic classes with Paris 2024 qualification available.

Shooting – World Cup gold for Australia

Laetisha Scanlan is bringing home gold after a triumphant win in the women's trap final at the Italian World Cup in Lonato.

She hit 46 out of 50 targets to edge out Spain's Fatima Galvez who shot 45 targets. Third place went to Rumeysa Pelin Kaya (TUR) back on 35.

"There are so many talented women [competitors] so I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy final but really happy to have started off strong initially and then that just led me into a battle for gold and silver against Fatima [Galvez from Spain]," Laetisha said.

"It was incredibly hot in the final but having said that I was so glad I was out there."

She did not just have the support of the Australian Team who were watching on from the grandstand, but her parents Pamela and Bernie Scanlan made the trip to Italy to support their daughter.

“They got to watch me which was so amazing. They are my biggest supporters, so I am really really happy.”

Catherine Skinner and Penny Smith missed a spot in the six-person final, as their qualifying scores of 115/125 fell just short of the 117 cut off.

In the men's trap competition James Willett was the best of the Aussies, ending qualifying in 14th position after hitting 121 of 125 targets - one short of a chance at the final.

There is a short break in the competition schedule before for the World Championships next month in Baku; a shotgun range where Laetisha won a World Cup bronze medal in 2022.

Athletics – Hall takes back Australian Record, Myers sets World Record

Dual Olympian Linden Hall has put in another Australian Record performance in the women’s 1500m at the Silesia Diamond League over the weekend to get fifth place.

The Victorian’s time of 3:57.27, 0.02 seconds faster than the previous Australian and Oceania Record Jess Hull owned, is a Paris 2024 qualifier.

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“It’s still a bit of a shock. I think I need to watch the race back and let it soak in a little bit. It feels very nice to run a big PB, probably quicker than I was expecting. I thought I was in PB shape but not quite that much,” Linden said.

“It’s a bit of a relief to slot back into that top spot. It is all that much sweeter when you know you have such great depth in the women’s 1500m in Australia right now. We are only bringing the best out of each other which is really cool. It’s a real possibility we could have three girls in the final in Budapest which would be amazing, and I know we are all chasing that.”

Australian U18 and U20 1500m record holder Cameron Myers has far exceeded expectations at his first Diamond League meet, with the 17-year-old breaking the U18 1500m World Record to place 11th.

His 3:33.26 effort beat the previous record (3:33.72) that stood for 17 years, held by Kenya’s Nicholas Kemboi. It is also a Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying time.

“I’m just so happy, beyond words really. Of course I knew what a race and what an opportunity… I just hoped to make the best of it. And the result, yes I’m very happy,” Cameron said.

“The first lap was strung out, I was right at the back, but I felt good on the second and third laps and moved up just a bit. The last lap [was] really tough, but I finished ok.”

Mackenzie Little returned to the Diamond League javelin throw podium for the second time in a fortnight, finishing second off the back of a 64.50m fourth-round throw to also achieve a Paris 2024 qualifier.

Nicola Olyslagers’ run of eight-straight high jump victories came to an end as she too placed second, with the Ukraine’s Iryna Gerashchenko taking the win.

Read more here.

Artistic Swimming – Historic world championship results

Both the technical team and the the women's technical duet team have impressed at the World Aquatics World Championships in Japan.

The technical team of Carolyn Rayna Buckle, Hannah Burkhill, Georgia Courage-Gardiner, Kiera Gazzard, Alessandra Ho, Margo Joseph-Kuo, Zoe Poulis and Milena Waldmann placed 11th in the preliminaries with a score of 200.7701 to become the first Aussies to make the world championships team final since 2007.

Plus the women's technical duet team, Carolyn Buckle and Kiera Gazzard, finished 19th out of 38 to be the first Aussie duo to finish top 20 at the world champs in more than 20 years.

Tennis - Storm Hunter secures silverware at Wimbledon

Storm Hunter had a Wimbledon doubles tournament to remember, as she made her first ever Grand Slam final and became the first Aussie woman in 10 years to feature in the women’s doubles final.

Storm and doubles partner Elise Mertens (GER) finished runners up as Hsieh Su-wei (TWN) and Barbora Strycova (CZE) delivered a 7-5 6-4 win on centre court.

Read more here.

Football – Matildas primed for World Cup with 1-0 win

In Australia’s final match before the beginning of the FIFA Women’s World Cup on home soil, the Matildas enjoyed a 1-0 win against the world no.5 ranked French team in Melbourne.

Playing in front of a record 50,629 fans at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium Mary Fowler found the back of the net in the 66th minute, her 10th goal in Australian colours.

A neat one-two between Kyra Cooney-Cross and Hayley Raso saw the latter in behind the French defence.

Hayley then squared her ball to Mary unmarked on the penalty spot and provided a deft touch to score.

Read more here.

The victory was Australia’s ninth in ten matches, fourth in a row against top ten opponents and sixth in a row on home soil dating back to November 2022.

Next up for Australia will be their opening match of the FIFA Women’s World Cup against the Republic of Ireland on Thursday 20 July at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

Diving – Top-five finish for Shixin Li

Tokyo 2020 diver Shixin Li placed fifth in the men's 1m springboard final at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.

His best dive in the final was a forward 3 1/2 somersault pike that earned a 74.25 score from the judges.

Read more here.

Georgia Sheehan achieved ninth place in the women's 1m springboard final, while Shixin Li and Sam Fricker together came 12th in the men's 3m synchronised springboard.

Cycling – Road - Hindley within striking distance of Tour de France leaders

After 15 stages and riding more than 2,600km all over France, Jai Hindley has mainted a spot within the top five overall riders.

An early mass crash in the 14th stage collected Jai and hurt his chances to remain in the top three, but battled on to finish the stage 6th.

After 62 hours, 40 minutes and 55 seconds on the bike Jai is more than six and a half minutes behind race leader Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) but only one minute 17 seconds behind third placed Carlos Rodriguez Cano (ESP) with six stages to go.

Triathlon - Push for Paris to continue after mixed relay world champs

Paris 2024 quotas were up for grabs in the Mixed Relay World Championships in Hamburg for the event winner in Germany this past weekend.

The Australian quartet of Matt Hauser, Natalie van Coevorden, Jacob Birtwhistle and Jaz Hedgeland each completed a 300m swim, 7km bike ride and a 1.75km - finishing sixth overall.

Their combined time of 1:23:15 was one minute and seven seconds behind the winning team from the host nation.

Matt also took part in the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) and secured fifth place in the inaugural men's world super sprint final. The result propels Matt into third spot in the WTCS season rankings.

Water Polo – Stingers off the mark at world champs

The Stingers have opened their 2023 World Championships campaign with a 10-8 win against France in Japan. They brought a 7-5 advantage into half-time and held onto the lead while under pressure.

It was a reverse of fortune for the Sharks, as they fell 13-9 to Greece. The damage was done in the second and fourth quarters, with Greece scoring eight of their 13 goals in those periods - compared to Australia's four.

Group play continues tomorrow for the Stingers and and on Wednesday for the Sharks.

Badminton – Aussies cause upset at US Open

A touch of bad luck in the US Open draw saw an all-Aussie mixed doubles clash in the first round, as Jack Yu and Setyana Mapasa squared up against Gronya Somerville and Kenneth Choo.

Gronya and Kenneth won through 21-16 21-10 and subsequently defeated the no.2 seeded Chinese Taipei pairing Chang Ko-Chi and Lee Chih Chen 24-22 23-21.

Their run was stopped in the quarter-finals as the USA's Presley Smith and Allison Lee used all three sets to win 9-21 22-20 21-15.

Beach Volleyball – Round of 16 appearances for Aussie duos

The Chris McHugh/Paul Burnett and Tom Hodges/Zac Schubert pairs finished equal-ninth at the Beach Pro Tour event in Portugal over the weekend.

Both experienced losses in the round of 16; Chris and Paul went down in three sets to Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk (USA) 15-21 21-17 15-17, plus Tom and Zac in straight sets to Piotr Kantor Jakub Zdybek (POL) 17-21 17-21.

Weekend Wrap: Wearn sails to gold in Marseille, Aquatics World Champs silver and more