Michmutters
It’s the end of the men’s 67kg weightlifting competition at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and Kiribati’s Ruben Katoatau, 25, is one of the most-popular competitors with fans and the media.
He didn’t win gold or silver or bronze, and even he can’t quite understand why there’s so much interest in him.
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Veteran West Coast Eagles forward Josh Kennedy has confirmed Sunday’s home game against Adelaide will be his last in the AFL.
Kennedy, 34, will depart the game as West Coast’s leading goal kicker, a three-time All-Australian, dual Coleman medalist and premiership player.
He was an integral part of the club’s 2018 premiership side as West Coast’s only multiple goal kicker on the day, with three crucial majors.
He also had 18 disposals and took 11 marks as the Eagles claimed their fourth premiership.
Drafted by Carlton at pick No.4 overall from East Fremantle in 2005, Kennedy played 22 games for the Blues before somewhat reluctantly agreeing to be involved in the famous trade that sent West Coast premiership captain Chris Judd to the Blues at the end of 2007.
After a stellar career spanning 17 seasons, Kennedy said his body has had enough.
“My knee is a big reason for retiring. I think my drive to play is still there, but I’m realistic my body is not going to be able to take me to another season,” he said.
“To be able to farewell West Coast supporters one last time at Optus Stadium and say thank you for the incredible support over the years will be the perfect way to finish my career.”
West Coast CEO Trevor Nisbett said the club was blessed to have had Kennedy for the last 15 seasons.
“We have been fortunate to have many great players come through the doors of our club over our 35 years and Josh ranks with the best of them,” he said.
“His achievements compare to the greatest in the history of the game. He is our highest-ever goal kicker and one of our most durable players.
“But his on-field achievements are only part of the story. He has been a guiding light for our younger players, but also a significant contributor across the broader community.”
Coach Adam Simpson said Kennedy was loved by his teammates and would go into history books as one of the greatest players.
“Josh is going to be one of the game’s greats and one of the club’s greats,” he said.
“What he’s done in my time at the club, it’s just been a pleasure to see and watch. Coleman Medals, the ability to stand up in big games. Clutch, not just goals, but clutch moments.”
Sunday’s game against the Crows will be his 292th AFL game.
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Highly rated young Australian motor racing ace Oscar Piastri appears on the cusp of securing a prized Formula One seat after the shock defection of veteran Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso.
Alonso has signed a multi-year deal with British-based F1 team Aston Martin and Piastri is considered the two-time world champion’s obvious successor at Alpine for the 2023 season.
A winner of the 2021 Formula Two championship, Piastri has been Alpine’s reserve driver this season amid speculation he could be loaned out to another Formula One team in 2023.
But the 41-year-old Alonso’s switch from the Renault-owned Alpine — as a replacement for retiring four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin — makes Piastri a warm favorite to join Daniel Ricciardo in bolstering Australia’s presence in the F1 ranks.
Piastri — who is managed by Australia’s former Formula One star Mark Webber — is considered a rising talent in motor racing.
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The 21-year-old from Melbourne claimed the Formula Three championship in 2020 to announce his arrival on the world stage.
Should Piastri secure a seat with Alpine in 2023, he will become the first Australian driver to make a Formula One debut since Ricciardo stepped up in the 2011 British Grand Prix.
While confirming Alonso’s departure, Alpine says it is premature to add to speculation that Piastri will be his replacement.
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“The team will announce its driver line-up for the 2023 Formula One season in due course,” Alpine said.
“We look forward to finishing the remainder of the 2022 season with Fernando in blue, and we’ll keep pushing to the maximum until the final lap in November.”
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Georgia Godwin has continued her breakthrough Commonwealth Games, with another gold medal in artistic gymnastics in Birmingham.
A day after winning the women’s all-round individual title, the 24-year-old again produced her best to claim the vault.
And it was as tight as you can get.
Godwin and Canada’s Laurie Denommee finished on the same score after their two vaults.
However, the Queenslander won on the tie-break rule, with the highest scoring single vault.
“Coming off of two days of comp, I am feeling it a little bit, so I just gave 110 per cent of what I had left into that first vault,” she said.
And straight after the final vault, she backed up for the uneven bars, and this time grabbed silver.
While gold might seem to shine brightest, Godwin was most emotional when talking about sharing the silver medal in the team final earlier in the week.
“The team one means so much to me,” she said.
“To go through everything we have with the other four girls, and to come away with a silver, I’m so proud of them.
“I’m just proud of myself and everything I’ve had to go through. And everyone who’s helped me get here. It takes a huge village.”
Godwin is the advertisement gymnastics needs after a report last year showed serious issues in the sport.
And she’s willing to help the sport move forward.
“I like to see myself as the mother figure. I am older,” she said.
“This team I was honored to be the captain of — and I’ve really just tried to take everyone under my wing, show them what sportsmanship looks like and try [to] guide them in the right direction at the end.
“I do my best to try [to] show that gymnastics is a safe sport, and that everyone should feel safe when doing gymnastics, and we’re heading in the right direction.”
Godwin still has one more event to come: the women’s beam final.
Track cyclist Matthew Glaetzer has had one of the wildest rides of all athletes at the Commonwealth Games.
He started competition with gold in the men’s team sprint, then was involved in a scary crash in the keirin, which threatened to end his campaign.
He was left fuming after being denied a bronze medal in the men’s sprint upon review.
Then, to throw another spanner in the works, just hours before the men’s 1000m time trial, AusCycling released a statement saying the Australians would have to use different handlebars, due to them being ruled unsafe.
So, among that dramatic backdrop, Glaetzer still somehow managed to summon a phenomenal performance to win the time trial, using equipment that would’ve added at least a second to his time.
“I’m making a habit of bouncing back at the Commonwealth Games,” he said.
“I’d rather not have such lows to come back from, but it shows there is always a new day and we can always try again.”
Glaetzer has now equaled Anna Meares’s track cycling record of five Commonwealth Games golds.
“It was special, but I was surprised I won, given how bad I felt out there,” he said.
“Last night I said I’d be over the moon just to get a medal, considering everything that’s happened.
“To come home with a win in such a special time, shows how strong we are as a nation.”
Ellen Ryan, 25 — the youngest member of the Australian lawn bowls team — took out the gold medal in her debut Games women’s singles final, overcoming Guernsey’s Lucy Beere 17-21.
However, in the men’s triple final, while Australia’s men almost pulled off one of the great comebacks, they had to settle for silver..
Barry Lester, Carl Healey and Ben Twist were trailing 12-1, with two ends to go.
They managed to get back to 12-all but England edged ahead to win 14-12, leaving the Aussies with a silver medal.
“We used every bit of Aussie spirit we could and put ourselves in a position [to win],” Lester said.
“ButJamie [Chestney, England] and the boys played really well and they’re worthy winners.”
Kyle Bruce was in the gold medal position in the men’s 81kg weightlifting category after a Commonwealth Games record of 183kg in the clean and jerk.
He was given three white lights by the judges, however, on review, officials ruled his arms didn’t fully extend in the overhead position and, so, he was left with silver behind England’s Chris Murray.
“A lot of people at home that don’t know weightlifting that will would be cheering and screaming like ‘Wow, that’s the gold, he’s got it,'” Bruce said.
“And then, a few minutes later, to say it’s a ‘No lift’, some people wouldn’t understand that.
“But, as a weightlifter, that’s the rules. I understand that.”
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Emma McKeon joins Kyle Chalmers, Kaylee McKeown, Matt Levy and the men’s 4x200m relay team as gold medalist on day four of the Commonwealth Games.
She led an Australian 1-2 in the 50m butterfly with Holly Barratt, and qualified fastest for the 100m freestyle final, alongside Shayna Jack and Mollie O’Callaghan.
Earlier, Kyle Chalmers won gold in the men’s 100m freestyle, saying all the outside noise made it “hard to enjoy the moment”.
Follow live and join the conversation in our blog.
By Jon Healey
A little earlier, Australia’s women’s 3×3 basketball team lost their semi-final against England 21-15.
That means Australia will face off against New Zealand, who lost to Canada in their semi, for the bronze.
That game is at 1.30am AEST tomorrow.
By Kelsie Iorio
By Jon Healey
To recap, five gold and two silver medals
Kaylee McKeown picked up one of each, with gold in the 200m backstroke and silver in the 200m individual medley less than an hour later.
Kyle Chalmer started the morning with gold in the 100m freestyle, while Emma McKeon continued her golden Games by winning the 50m butterfly final just ahead of teammate Holly Barratt.
We also saw Matt Levy win gold in the 50m freestyle S7 to cap off his remarkable career, and then the men’s 4x200m freestyle team brought it home in a romp.
By Kelsie Iorio
It’s still only the second quarter but Australia’s dominant performance is continuing in this pool match against the Kiwis.
Jake Whitton, Jacob Anderson and Blake Govers have put points on the board so far. We’ll keep you updated.
By Kelsie Iorio
This is… quite gross.
Billy McAllister was progressing well in his match against Jerone Ennis but a nasty hit has opened up basically his entire eyebrow and ended the fight early.
It means the Jamaican takes the win.
They keep showing close-ups of it. I feel ill now.
There’s a photo of it coming up.
Fair warning.
If you keep scrolling…
…you’re gonna see it.
OKAY?
OKAY.
By Jon Healey
Key Event
Swimming: Australia wins the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay final with a Games recordElijah Winnington, Flynn Southam, Zac Incerti and Mack Horton hit the water for the Aussie team.
The second leg from 17-year-old Southam was particularly impressive, seeing off a big challenge from South African great Chad le Clos and giving Incerti a body-length lead over Wales as he started the penultimate leg.
He turned that into an almost four-second lead over England by the time he handed over to Horton for the anchor and he powered home in a Commonwealth Games record time of 7:04.96.
English anchor swimmer Tom Dean got out of the pool before the final swimmer from Gibraltar had finished, but the English will keep their silver medal. Wales got bronze.
By Jon Healey
Chelsea Hodges, Jenna Strauch and Abbey Harkin will all swim in the final tomorrow, but they’ll have a massive job to track down South African duo Lara van Niekerk and Tatjana Schoenmaker, who qualified fastest.
By Kelsie Iorio
Key Event
Judo: Bronze for both Katz brothersJoshua and Nathan Katz have both won bronze in the 60kg and 66kg judo divisions respectively.
Josh defeated Simon Zulu of Zambia and Nathan got the win over India’s Jasleen Singh Saini in their bronze medal matches to lock in a podium finish for all three of our judo athletes today.
Fun fact: Team Australia has three lots of siblings on the team this Commonwealth Games! The Katz brothers, Madison and Teagan Levi in the rugby sevens and badminton players Angela and Jack Yu.
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By Kelsie Iorio
Kiana Rose Elliott has finished fourth in the women’s 71kg weightlifting final, falling short of a medal by just eight kilos.
England’s Sarah Davis has won gold with a total of 229kg, alexis ashworth of Canada got silver with 214kg and Indian Harkinder Kaur‘s 212kg secured her the bronze.
Kiana Rose finished with a total of 204kg — a 94kg snatch and 110kg clean and herk.
By Jon Healey
Key Event
Swimming: Emma McKeon wins another gold, Holly Barratt ties for silver in 50m butterflyEmma McKeon wins her fourth gold medal of these Games, touching the wall in 25.90, which was 0.15 of a second ahead of compatriot Holly Barrattwho will share the silver medal podium with South Africa’s Erin Gallagher.
Hopefully they have two medals and don’t have to share that too, like some sort of Sisterhood of the Traveling P(end)ants.
Alex Perkins was fifth.
By Jon Healey
Ben Armbruster and Bradley Woodward pushed all the way, but couldn’t rein in the top three, with Andrew Jeffcoat winning for New Zealand, with South Africa’s Pieter Coetze winning silver and Javier Acevedo of Canada touching 0.11 of a second ahead of Woodward for bronze.
By Kelsie Iorio
Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett‘s winning streak continues in the beach volleyball pool match stage with another straight-sets victory, this time over South Africa.
Fellow Aussies Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar will also be looking to make it two from two in their second match — they face Trinidad and Tobago next.
You can catch that match from 11:30pm AEST tonight.
By Kelsie Iorio
charlie senior‘s Birmingham journey has come to an end after losing on points to Canada’s Keoma-Ali Al-Ahmadieh in the featherweight division.
The scorecard is so close but it just didn’t fall the way of the Aussie today.
We’ve got another Australian up in the ring in the next half an hour or so — Billy McAllister in the light heavyweight division, up against Jamaica’s Jerone Ennis.
By Jon Healey
Maisie Summers-Newton of England bossed the field in that one, winning gold by 10.57 seconds.
Izzy Vincent and Ella Jones were fifth and sixth.
By Jon Healey
Key Event
Swimming: Matt Levy successfully defends his 50m freestyle S7 titleMatt Levy had a slow start as he often does, but reeled in Christian Sadie of South Africa, and ends his glittering career in style.
So that’s nine gold medals at Paralympics, world championships and Commonwealth Games for this legend of the sport.
Seventeen-year-old Joel Mundie was sixth.
By Kelsie Iorio
Key Event
Gymnastics: Another gold and a silver for Georgia GodwinWhat a Games Georgia’s having!!
After snagging gold in the individual all-around final and silver in the team final, she’s added another gold on vault and to silver on uneven bars to her haul.
Teammates Emily Whitehead and kate mcdonald finished eighth and seventh on vault and one bars respectively.
In the men’s apparatus finals, Clay Mason Stephens you have finished seventh on floor and Jesse Moore came sixth on pommel.
The artistic gymnastics isn’t quite done yet. We still have James Bacuetti in the final vault, Tyson Bull and Mitchell Morgan on parallel bars, Godwin and McDonald on beam, Moore and Morgans on horizontal bar and Whitehead and Romi Brown on floor. Tune in tonight!
By Jon Healey
Key Event
Swimming: Kaylee McKeown wins silver in 200m individual medley finalKaylee McKeown had to rush away after picking up her 200m backstroke gold to prepare for this one.
Canadian 15-year-old Summer McIntosh wins the gold, adding to her 400m IM title.
was trailing after the butterfly and backstroke legs, but actually made up ground in the breaststroke to lead heading into the final 50 meters.
But then the freestyle pedigree of McIntosh came to the fore and she overran the Aussie to come home first in 2:08.70, not quite a second ahead of McKeown.
England’s Abbie Wood was third, with Aussies Abbey Harkin and Ella Ramsay fifth and eighth respectively.
By Kelsie Iorio
Key Event
Weightlifting: Silver for Sarah Maureen Cochrane in women’s 64kg final
Huge result for Sarah Maureen Cochrane.
The 32-year-old finished with a total of 216kg — a couple of kilos off her total PB but enough to claim the silver.
She ended on a 100kg snatch and 116kg clean and jerk.
canada’s Maude Charron won gold with a staggering 231 total — 101kg snatch and 130kg clean and jerk. Islamiyat Adebukola Yusuf of Nigeria took the bronze.
Fun fact: Sarah is a certified practicing speech pathologist. What a legend.
By Jon Healey
This is the event Kyle Chalmers pulled out of so he could focus on the 100m freestyle final.
Temple stormed home in his semi in 51.52 and goes into the final as the fastest qualifier.
Cody Simpson finished third in the second semi (fifth fastest qualifier) so they’ll both be in the final.
Seven-time Comm Games gold medalist Chad le Clos looks the man to beat, although Temple qualified slightly faster.
By Kelsie Iorio
Key Event
Lawn bowls: Gold for Ellen Ryan in the women’s singles!
A fantastic result for the 25-year-old!
She’s defeated Guernsey’s Lucy Beere 17 – 21 at Victoria Park to add another gold to Australia’s tally.
As the youngest member of the lawn bowls team, this is Ellen’s first Commonwealth Games — and what a way to debut.
We’ll see her again in the women’s pairs competition, which kicks off this afternoon (our time).
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The Queen has led a jubilant nation in congratulating England’s Lionesses after they ended half a century of hurt by winning the nation’s first major football trophy since 1966.
Within minutes of the Women’s Euros win the monarch said captain Leah Williamson and her players had “rightly won praise” for their win but that their success “goes far beyond the trophy” they won for beating Germany 2-1.
She praised them for setting “an example that will be an inspiration for girls and women today, and for future generations”.
Up in the royal box at the game, the Duke of Cambridge leapt to his feet at the win and was there to congratulate the players.
And, it seems he may have helped bring the team luck, hours earlier posting a video message with daughter Princess Charlotte, seven, wishing the team “good luck”.
The Queen presented England’s only previous major football trophy – the men’s World Cup – to captain Bobby Moore at the old Wembley in 1966.
On Monday morning (Perth time), the 87,192-strong crowd at the new Wembley smashed the record for a men’s or women’s Euros final.
As many as 15 million were watching around the UK on television – another record for women’s football, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his children.
He said: “Football has come home! A stunning victory. Huge congratulations to [manager Sarina Wiegman]Leah and the whole team.”
David Baddiel, whose “It’s Coming Home!” lyric from 1996 football anthem Three Lions, echoed around Wembley, also praised the team.
The comedian tweeted: “Home. In fact it’s come home. A sentence I thought I’d never write. I’ve gone. Thank you Lionesses.”
The Spice Girls paid tribute to the “true girl power” of the Lionesses and men’s England captain Harry Kane hailed the “absolutely unreal scenes”.
FA head of women’s football, Baroness Sue Campbell, said she was confident the win would have a legacy for women’s and girls’ football.
“I hope it’s spreading wonderful feelings of hope and happiness to the whole nation,” she added.
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Retired tennis superstar Ash Barty has married her longtime partner, Garry Kissick.
The 26-year-old exchanged vows with her golfer partner in a private ceremony in Queensland earlier this month.
Barty reached the pinnacle of world tennis as number one during a decorated career on the WTA tour.
She won three grand slam victories — the 2020 French Open, Wimbledon in 2021 and a hometown success in this year’s Australian Open.
She announced her retirement from professional tennis in March at the age of 25, shocking the sporting world
Barty posted a wedding day photo on her Instagram account on Saturday night, with the simple caption ‘Husband & Wife’.
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Veteran rider Annemiek van Vleuten has won the historic, re-booted Tour de France Femmes on Sunday after clinching the eighth and final stage in style.
The 39-year-old won the stage for 30 seconds from Dutch countrywoman Demi Vollering, who also finished the race second overall.
Italian rider Silvia Persico was third in the stage, one minute and 43 seconds behind the winner.
In the overall standings, Movistar rider van Vleuten was three minutes and 48 seconds clear of Vollering (Team SD Worx) and six minutes and 35 seconds ahead of Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon–SRAM) in third spot.
Van Vleuten had just about enough energy to punch the air in delight when crossing the line after the 123-kilometre mountain stage in the Vosges mountains of eastern France.
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It featured two category-one climbs, the second ascent being the stage-ending trek up La Super Planche des Belles Filles, which finished with a daunting gradient of 23 per cent.
She entered the final stage with a lead of three minutes and 14 seconds over Vollering.
On Saturday’s penultimate stage, Van Vleuten rose from eighth overall to take the yellow jersey from Marianne Vos with more superb climbing in the Vosges.
Van Vleuten added this victory to a long list of achievements, including three Giro d’Italia Femminile titles, Olympic gold in the time trial and two world championship golds in the same discipline.
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Six years ago, her career was under threat after she sustained fractures to her spine and was placed in intensive care after crashing during the women’s Olympic road race at the Brazil Games.
Vos was among the favorites, but the three-time Giro d’Italia champion ended up in 26th place overall despite winning two stages.
The best placed Australian was Grace Brown, who finished 20th overall, riding with FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope.
Fellow Australian Rachel Neylan finished 28th (Team Cofidis).
AAP/ABC Sport
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Is there anything Olympian Jana Pittman can’t do?
If juggling six children while working as a doctor – during the pandemic mind you – wasn’t difficult enough, Pittmann wants to add another spinning plate.
“My goal is to join the Army Reserve,” Pittman told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I am halfway through that application, but I had the twins, so it has been delayed.”
The 39-year-old and her husband, Paul Gatward, announced the arrival of Willow and Quinlan in March last year, just months after her impressive stint on Seven’s SAS Australia.
After putting her mind and body on the line during the second season of the hit military-style show, it seems the real-life Wonder Woman has what it takes to join the military.
She said her decision was influenced by her brother, grandfather, brother-in-law and father-in-law are all veterans.
“We have a lot of family involved in the military,” she said.
“My brother was an ex-Afghan veteran, my grandfather was in the Army and my husband’s brother is in the Army, as is his father. Also my grandparents were Dutch and went through (Nazi occupation in) World War II.
“So we have seen first hand how the war can impact them when they come home. I have grown up with a lot of respect for veterans.”
Pittman’s brother Ryan was involved in the military for “several years” and did tours in Afghanistan.
The champion hurdler revealed it was her brother who inspired her to become involved with the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay, a six-month campaign that acknowledges veterans and families of veterans.
“This is my opportunity to thank the men and women who have represented our country,” she said.
“I think it is so wonderful they are getting 2000 people to hold the torch in various places around Australia.”
Pittman has already built a very impressive career.
She’s best known for her sporting prowess, having competed at three Olympics, been a two-time world champion in the 400m hurdles, and for her Gold medals at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games.
In 2019 she completed her medical degree and is now specializing in women’s health.
“I feel incredibly lucky to have a career after sport,” she admitted on SAS Australia.
“I know a lot of my friends have really struggled with it.
“Sport, for me, was almost an accident. I wanted to be a doctor from the age I could remember. I remember carrying a little doctor’s bag around that my granddad gave me, and it was full of all sorts of pretend instruments and stethoscopes and things. And so that was my goal.”
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They’re calling her the new Dean Boxall.
Rachelle Levi — proud mum of sisters Teagan and Maddi who were part of Australia’s Commonwealth Games gold-medal winning women’s rugby 7s side — was “two champagne bottles down” and could not contain her excitement when she was interviewed by Sam Mac on Sunrise on Monday morning.
“Oh my god, I’ve been up all night and I’m the most excited mother in the whole world. I absolutely love my daughters and I love the Aussie girls, they are the best!” she said.
“Woohoo, two champagne bottles down already, yesss!” she excitedly told Mac, who responded: ”At the Olympics it was all about (swimming coach) Dean Boxall, right, as the most passionate supporter, well I see your Dean Boxall and I raise you Rachelle, over here. Are you ok?”
Dean Boxall became an instant social media hit for his reaction in the immediate aftermath of Ariarne Titmus’ victory over her American arch rival at the Olympics.
Throwing his head back and rattling the safety barrier in wild scenes he later explained he was paying homage to 1980s and 90s wrestling star The Ultimate Warrior, who he described as “my favourite”.
Nat Barr and David Koch were in stitches over Rachelle’s interview, with co-host Edwina Bartholomew questioning how her daughters might feel about their mother’s outing on national TV.
“Imagine winning a gold medal and waking up the next morning with messages ‘Your mum’s on TV, she’s had two bottles of champagne, she’s a riot!’”
SEE THE HILARIOUS INTERVIEW IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
But it seems her daughters were well aware of what their mother might get up to.
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