Monday, 26th September
Road cycling's greatest at Wollongong
Today was final day of the International Cycling Federation's biggest annual event. Wollongong in Australia has been the perfect setting for eight days of the world's best at the UCI Road World Championships. The coastal city is located south of Sydney along the popular Grand Pacific Drive. Medals were available in fourteen categories and we will focus on the elite success stories. The Individual Time Trials were claimed by the Netherland's Ellen van Dijk and Norway's Tobias S. Foss, while Switzerland took the Team Time Trial Mixed Relay gold. The ultimate prizes are the women's and men's Elite Road Race titles and here the 2022 world champions are the Netherland's Annemiek van Vleuten and Belgium's Remco Evenepoel.
We mentioned on a previous edition of Formula One's plans to increase their season to 24 races. Earlier in the week the organisers confirmed the 2023 calendar with Qatar, Las Vegas, and Shanghai making their debut, adding to the longest ever season in the history of the sport. Switzerland's Stefan Zeberli is the new World Hot Air Balloon Champion 2022. Zeberli made a total of 24403 points, beating Japan's Yudai Fujita to second, and France's Nicolas Schwartz completing the podium.
Mina Jeong of Korea and Shuai Luo of China became champions of Asia at the 2022 Asian Modern Pentathlon Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Fans of carom billiards had the UMB Ladies 3-cushion World Championship to look out for and it was Therese Klompenhouwer taking top honours, an incredible fifth world title for the Dutch star. Italy's 40-year-old Andrea Quarta won the World Championships in 5-Pins. In the Junior World Championship, Turkey's 16-year-old Burak Hashas claimed a very one-sided final.
As the rugby union autumn internationals approach, The Rugby Championship completed the final round on Saturday. New Zealand defended their title, having also already retained the Freedom Cup and the Bledisloe Cup. Over to boxing where England's Terri Harper became the new WBA super-welterweight champion, while fellow Britain Joe Joyce also became a new champion of the WBO interim heavyweight title.
Kenyan superstar and double Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge broke his own marathon world record at the Berlin Marathon on Sunday. The 37-year-old Kipchoge crossed the line in a time of two hours, one minute and nine seconds, beating the previous record by 30 seconds. Europe's best U19 water polo stars contested the LEN European Championships 2022 in Podgorica, Montenegro, over the weekend. Serbia edged Spain 9-8 in the final, with bronze going to Hungary. The Ukraine, Norway, France, Romania, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic all claimed gold medals in the final day of the 2022 World Rowing Championships in Račice, Czech Republic.
Italy Giulia Gasparri and Ninny Valentini retained their ITF Beach Tennis World Championship title in Terracina. Top seeds Michele Cappelletti and Antomi Ramos won to claim a first title, while the mixed doubles title went to Brazil's Andre Baran and Rafaella Miiller.
It was a weekend of Nations Finals in motorcycling. Sensational Spain doubled up at the 2022 FIM Trial Des Nations, claiming victory in both the men's and women's premier divisions. USA claimed the quad title, while the Netherland's retained the sidecar title in the FIM Sidecarcross World Championship. Over at Redbud in the United States, it was redemption day for the home nation as they took the 75th FIM Motocross of Nations.
Quentin Delapierre took France to their maiden victory in the Sail Grand Prix in Cádiz, Spain, moving to third place on the rankings. Australia are still in the lead. In tennis news, the World has beaten Europe 13-8 at The Laver Cup. Neil Robertson and Mink Nutcharut beat Mark Selby and Rebecca Kenna 4-2 in the final of the inaugural World Snooker Tour World Mixed Doubles. In golf the U.S. Team claimed the Presidents Cup by beating the International Team 15.5 to 9.5 at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Until next time, have a great week in sport.