Short and Sweet: Sarah Tait farewelled, a swimmer flies, netball fans rewarded and Rebecca Wiasak wins world title
A WORLD title, a Commonwealth record, netball fans rewarded and a sad farewell. All this and more in this weeks SHORT AND SWEET.
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OUR kayakers and swimmers have excelled, Australia farewelled a special champion, the WNBL grand final mix is decided, our surfers fly high and a Paralympian changes sports.
It’s been a busy few days in the world of women and sport.
Here’s our Short and Sweet wrap of sport.
AUSTRALIA’S NEW WORLD CHAMPION
ON the velodrome which delivered such success for our riders at the London Olympics, a former track and field athlete who went to triathlon before ending up in cycling has won a world title for Australia.
Australia on Monday finished third on the medal count at the world track cycling championships in London with Rebecca Wiasak’s gold in the individual pursuit one of the highlights.
Wiasak, from Canberra, successfully defended her crown on the opening day of the track meet.
FAREWELL TO A CHAMPION
AUSTRALIAN sport is mourning the loss of a true champion in the wake of the news triple Olympian Sarah Tait passed away at age 33 of cervical cancer late last week.
Athletes from rowing and also outside the sport paid heartfelt tributes to the mother of two and champion rower who had inspired so many.
Tait leaves behind a lasting legacy and will be long remembered.
FITZGIBBONS SNARES TOP AWARD
IF ever surfer Sally Fitzgibbons was riding high it’s right now.
In the space of a fortnight Fitzgibbons has not only beaten one of her main rivals for the world titles this year to win her first event of 2016 she has claimed top honours in a major award.
Fitzgibbons, who has been working on her own fitness app as part of a growing business empire, was named female surfer of the year at the Australian Surfing Awards.
The 24-year-old, engaged to Penrith player Trent Merrin, last year finished third on the world tour to end 2016 as the highest placed Australian woman.
The previous Sunday Fitzgibbons surfed her way through the Taggart Pro at Newcastle undefeated, claiming the title with her defeat of Stephanie Gilmore.
Later this week Fitzgibbons will be able to put her form and confidence to the test in the opener of the World Surf League, the Roxy Pro at Snapper Rocks.
GAME ON IN THE WNBL
TOWNSVILLE Fire have booked their spot in the grand final of the WNBL against Perth Lynx with a 91-71 win in their preliminary final against the SEQ Stars.
The defending WNBL champions will take on Perth Lynx in the first clash of the three-game series on Saturday
NEW COMMONWEALTH RECORD IN POOL
RIO Olympic Games hopeful Emma McKeon claimed a new Commonwealth record in the 200m freestyle at the NSW swim championships,
McKeon, who will race the 100 and 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly at next month’s Australian titles, broke the seven year-old 200m freestyle Commonwealth record when she touched the wall in 1:55.53.
This time bettered the 2009 Commonwealth mark set by British swimmer Joanne Jackson in by trust 0.01 of a second.
I could be at home following this on Twitter with a broken leg.
A WARNING AND A COMEBACK.
BACK in London, Anna Meares proved she will be a force to be reckoned with in Rio with her best sprint results at a world championship since 2012.
Meares, heading to her fourth Olympic Games, finished fourth in the sprint competition on the final day which followed on from her keirin silver and top four in the team sprint.
“I’m really quite pleased,” Meares said. “For me getting into the final four of the sprint was a huge step, a really huge step for my confidence, for my self belief, for just getting that feeling back again.
“And I liked it, I’d like some more of that.”
Major kudos to 2015 world champion Annette Edmondson who finished fifth in her event after a car accident in the lead-up up to the London track world championships.
“It could’ve been a lot worse,” said Edmondson. “I could be at home following this on Twitter with a broken leg.
“I had to keep that in mind and I’m also racing for Australia. It’s a world championships.”
RISING STAR RIDES WAVE OF SUCCESS
YOUNG Phillip Island surfer Nikki Van Dijk has proved she has the moves to be a force this year with he victory in the Australian Open of surfing at Manly.
The win means Van Dijk is one of the few surfers in the world who can take a victory into the opening leg of the World Surf League on the Gold Coast.
Van Dijk, just 21, is considered one of Australia’s ridding stars of surfing.
GREAT NEWS FOR NETBALL FAN
A NEW netball competition between Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa is now confirmed with the International Netball Super Series to be played on both sides of the Tasman.
Australia and New Zealand will host the new event in August and September with venues in Australia still to be confirmed.
The tournament will kick off in Auckland with a double header which will see the Silver Ferns host England after the world champion Australian Diamonds take on the SPAR Proteas.
PARALYMPIAN HITS THE WATER
WITH the Gliders failing to crack a spot at the Rio Paralympics, Australian wheelchair basketball captain Shelley Chaplin has decided to try her hand at a new sport.
“I started paddling to mend my heart
On the weekend the two-tiome Paralympian and silver and bronze medallist competed at the National Canoe Sprint Championships in Perth after taking up the sport just two months ago.
“We didn’t qualify for the women’s wheelchair basketball team and so I was a bit heartbroken and decided to try a few different things and one of them was paddling,” Chaplin said.
“I started paddling to mend my heart and I was a little bit okay at it so I became competitive and now I absolutely love it.”
“I love getting on the water and it is so different to basketball because in wheelchair basketball you go from one chair to another but in this you get in a boat and in water and you can go wherever you want and I really love the sport.”
GAME ON FOR PADDLERS
THE selection of the final spot for a woman kayaker on the Australian team has been extended to take in a World Cup meet in Germany in May after an extraordinary sequence of events in Perth.
As a consequence they have gone head to head for the one remaining spot in the team in K1 races.
Flood kept alive her chance of competing in Rio by beating Brigden-Jones in a race last week and then again in Sunday’s race-off.
The pair will now take their battle offshore.
SILVER LINING FOR GENTLE
ASHLEIGH Gentle picked up a silver medal in the opening round of the world series triathlon on Sunday but perhaps more importantly she turned heads ahead of Olympic selection.
“Our selection race is on the Gold Coast where we can get an automatic spot (for) the first Aussie in the top 10,” Gentle said.
“The next two (places) are discretionary and hopefully this race helps my cause, just to show (that) I’m here to race and that I race hard and I really want to do Australia proud.”
Australian women have won a medal at every Olympics since the sport’s debut at the Sydney 2000 Games with Erin Densham winning bronze in London.
No Australian man has won a medal in the Olympic arena.
Originally published as Short and Sweet: Sarah Tait farewelled, a swimmer flies, netball fans rewarded and Rebecca Wiasak wins world title
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