8th - 12th May
Grand Final in San Francisco
The San Francisco Bay Area was the setting for the Grand Final of Sail Grand Prix's Season 3. With a number of nations in with a chance to win the top prize, Australia's Tom Slingsby and his crew came to the famous city with only a slender lead. Racing took place over the previous weekend with the closing day on Monday. Australia delivered and reasserted their dominance in the popular global sailing competition with a SailGP Championship three-peat. New Zealand's Peter Burling came second, with Great Britain's Ben Ainslie completing the podium. The full season results have Australia with gold, Great Britain with silver, and Canada achieving the bronze medal. The teams will take a well-deserved break before heading to Chicago to begin Season 4 in June.
We remain with sailing where M'Diq in Morocco hosted the 2023 Optimist African Championship. The continental competition featured a number of entries from around the world. It was Argentina's Gino Pichetti who achieved the lowest net points to produce an outstanding performance. Susanna in Spain is a popular host for bodybuilding and fitness. On this occasion the best of Europe gathered for the 2023 IFBB European Championship. Follow the link for the full results:
Egypt's Soma Bay opened the new season of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup 2023. German's Leonie Beck and Florian Wellbrock won the Women's and Men's 10km, while their nation also claimed the 4x1500m Mixed Relay. In cycling news, Spain hosted a UCI ProSeries race during the week. Riejanne Markus (NED) won the Navarra Women's Elite Classic. Over in Italy the Giro d'Italia is still completing the first week with the Pink Jersey currently owned by Andreas Leknessund (DEN).
Michael Smith (ENG) stormed to his third consecutive nightly win in the Professional Darts Corporation Premier League. Smith beat Gerwyn Price 6-3 in Sheffield, England. With strong winds today cancelling the final task of the Paragliding World Cup Tour in Pegalajar, Spain, it was Andy Tallia who secured the victory by the tiniest of margins. Egypt reigned in Chicago at the Professional Squash Association World Championship. Ali Farag and Nour El Sherbini have retained their world titles over compatriots Nouran Gohar and Karim Abdel Gawad at Chicago’s spectacular Union Station on Thursday evening.
The city of Warilla in Australia hosted the 2023 World Bowls Indoor Championships that concluded today. Julie Forrest (SCO) defeated Katelyn Inch (NZL) for the Women's Singles title, while the Men's Singles winner is Aron Sherriff (AUS) after his defeat of Andrew Kelly (NZL). Australia also claimed the Mixed Pairs title. The story so far in Doha at the World Judo Championships is that Japan currently top the overall standings. We still have two days of intensive competition to look forward to.
At the recent CMAS World Indoor Freediving Championship 2023 in Kuwait, Magdalena Solich Talanda (POL) and Goran Čolak (CRO) both sent new world records with 263,64 meters and 292.15 meters respectively.
Until next time, have a great weekend in sport.