Two male wrestlers have qualified Australia to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics and our divers grabbed four World Cup medals in Germany to highlight the weekend in Olympic sport.
Wrestling – Two Paris 2024 quotas secured at Oceania & Africa Championships
Australia has earned two spots in the wrestling competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after Georgii Okorokov and Jayden Lawrence won an Olympic qualifying tournament in Egypt.
Georgii was dominant in the men’s 65kg division, defeating Manaceu Ngonda (ANG) 10-0 in the semi-final and winning all three of his matches at the event without conceding a point.
Jayden was locked in a tense battle with the tournament’s no.1 seed Harrison Onovwiomogbohwo (NGR) in the men’s 86kg final, prevailing with a 4-4 win on a criteria lead.
Diving – Divers collect four medals at World Cup in Germany
The Australian Diving Team has captured two silver and two bronze at the Diving World Cup in Berlin, in a performance that builds on the results from the Montreal World Cup.
Maddison Keeney finished with silver in the women's 3m springboard, up from fourth in Montreal, scoring 344.75 to sit behind Yiwen Chen's (CHN) 356.40.
Maddi then paired with Anabelle Smith in the women's 3m synchronised to nab another silver medal, up from bronze in Montreal, with a score of 296.73 to only trail the USA's winning pair on 303.21.
Cassiel Rousseau also collected two bronze medals on the weekend, in the men's 10m platform (476.90) and men's 10m synchronised with Domonic Bedggood (402.57).
Athletics – 24-year-old national relay record tumbles
Australia’s sprinters lit up the Sydney Track Classic with a new national women’s 4x100m record of 42.94 seconds, achieved by the quartet of Ebony Lane (VIC), Bree Masters (QLD), Ella Connolly (NSW) and Torrie Lewis (QLD).
The team lowered the record, which had stood for 24 years, by 0.05 seconds.
Joining forces ahead of the 2024 World Athletics Relay Championships to be held in the Bahamas this May, a vital Paris Olympic-qualifying opportunity, the team anchored by Australia’s fastest woman Lewis delivered a breakthrough run.
“I think we were all hoping to get the record but all we wanted tonight was a clean race and for us to run our best. We all knew we could do it with the times we have been running this season,” Torrie said.
Cycling – BMX freestyle & mountain bike - Oceania champions crowned
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Natalya Diehm and Brandon Loupos have taken out the 2024 BMX freestyle Oceania Championships in Brisbane on Sunday.
In a tight elite women's final for the top two spots, Natalya's 92.00 won gold with Sarah Nicki the runner-up with 89.33. Brandon recorded the biggest score of the Oceania Championships, 94.67 in the final, with Sammy Grace (90.33) and Jaie Toohey (86.67) following closely behind for silver and bronze.
Oceania’s best mountain bikers took on Mount Cotton one day prior, where New Zealand’s Anton Cooper and Samara Maxwell won the men’s and women’s elite events respectively. Australia’s top performers were Sam Fox, second, in the men’s event while Zoe Cuthbert (2nd) and Rebecca Henderson (3rd) completed the women’s podium.
Badminton – Australian first at Swiss Open
The pairing of Angela Yu and Setyana Mapasa became the first Australians to reach the Swiss Open women’s doubles semi-finals on Friday.
Ranked no.33 in the world before the tournament, they defeated the no.3 seed pairing of Kusuma/Pratiwi from Indonesia and followed that up with a 21-14, 21-15 win against Treesa Jolly (IND) & Gayatri Gopichand Pullela (IND). In the semi-finals they were knocked out there by Ya Ching Hsu (TPE) and Wan Ching Ling (TPE) 12-21, 13-21.
The results give Angela and Setyana valuable ranking points on their path to qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Triathlon – Willian posts best World Cup result since 2020 in Hong Kong
After an enthralling home Oceania Championships, Australian triathletes rejoined the World Cup circuit in Hong Kong and posted three top-15 results.
Luke Willian was the highest placing and just shy of the men’s podium in fourth place (53:38), 14 seconds behind Japan’s Kenji Nener in third.
In the women’s elite field Emma Jackson and Emma Jeffcoat were 13th and 15th, completing the event in 01:00:40 and 01:00:47 respectively.
Judo – Top-five at Tbilisi Grand Slam
Aoife Coughlan finished equal-fifth in the women’s -70kg division at the Tbilisi Grand Slam in Georgia.
Sailing – Top 20 at Formula Kite European Championships
Paris 2024 bound sailor Breiana Whitehead has placed 19th at the Formula Kite European Championships on Mar Menor in Spain.
Tennis – Three in the hunt at Miami Open
Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin and Christopher O'Connell have all won through to the round of 32 at the Miami Open, with Alexei and Christopher knocking out seeded opponents.
Christopher O'Connell knocked out [21] Frances Tiafoe (USA) 7-5 7-6(5) and Alexei handled [26] Jiri Lehecka (CZE) 6-4 6-4.
Gymnastics – Rhythmic – Top six at Cottbus World Cup
Imogen Florian and Abbie Watts have finished 6th in the women’s synchronised trampoline final at Cottbus World Cup in Germany.
