At just 16 years old, Japan’s Sorato Shimizu set a new world record for the under-18 100m sprint over the weekend.

At a high school meet in Hiroshima, Shimizu ran a time of 10.00 seconds to eclipse the previous record of 10.06, which was jointly held by Thailand's Puripol Boonson and the U.S’ Christian Miller. The race was run in legal wind conditions, meaning the record will stand.  

The time means he is eligible to race at the athletics world championships in September, where he could come up against our very own Aussie teen sensation, Gout Gout.

1
The number of swimmers who have won five world championship titles in one year since the event began in 1973. Michael Phelps achieved the feat in 2007. 17-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh is seeking to become the second swimmer to do so. McIntosh has already won the women’s 400m freestyle and the 200m individual medley. She will now be eyeing off gold in the 200m butterfly, 800m freestyle and 400m individual medley, which are all still to come this week.

"There is no other position on the field that is under the scrutiny that our match officials are under, and yet they do an incredible job under that incredible pressure in a very live environment. I think it's disappointing when the reaction is one of ‘this means player welfare is not taken seriously’, because I think we've worked really, really hard on that narrative.”
World Rugby boss Alan Gilpin speaking about the referee’s decision not to award Australia a penalty, after the Lions scored the match-winning try in the second Test on Saturday night. Match officials looked at a cleanout made by Welsh flanker Jac Morgan at the ruck immediately before Irish fullback Hugo Keenan scored the try, but decided not to overrule the original decision to let play carry on and award the try. Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt called the decision an “error”, and Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh said the organisation wanted “accountability” from World Rugby.

In 2002, Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt became the youngest male ever ranked world No. 1 in singles at just 20 years and 265 days. Carlos Alcaraz then eclipsed Hewitt’s record after he won the U.S. Open in 2022, aged 19 years and 129 days.

🚴‍♂️ Dutch cyclist Lorena Wiebes won stage three of the Tour de Femmes, beating Marianne Vos in a sprint finish. Vos, who is also Dutch, is now the overall race leader after last night’s result and her stage one victory. She sits six seconds ahead of Mauritius’ Kim Le Court Pienaar, who was the race leader before the beginning of stage three. Sarah Gigante is the highest-placed Australian. The 24-year-old is in 19th place, 45 seconds behind Vos. 

🏀 A man who stalked and threatened American basketball star Caitlin Clark has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. 55-year-old Michael Lewis pleaded guilty to one count of stalking and one count of harassment on Monday. According to prosecutors, Lewis sent Clark more than 800 threatening messages from 12 December 2024 to 11 January 2025. He was arrested and charged on 11 January.

⚽ The Matildas will get an insight into the challenge they face at the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup tonight, with the tournament groups set to be drawn at 7:00pm. The draw sees the 12 teams placed into four separate pots based on their world ranking before they are split into groups, which consist of one team from each pot. The Matildas, ranked 15th in the world, are in the top pot alongside Japan (7th) and North Korea (9th). The Women’s Asian Cup will be hosted by Australia in March next year. 

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Day two of the swimming world championships saw Australia’s Alexandria Perkins win a bronze medal in the women’s 100m butterfly. Here’s what you need to know.

Perkins finished behind world record-holder Gretchen Walsh in first and Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk in second. It marks a massive improvement for Perkins, who finished 13th in the 100m butterfly at the Paris Olympics last year. 

Perkins said: “I couldn’t be happier, honestly. I tried not to expect anything going into that final. I just wanted to put my best foot forward and be proud of what I’ve done. Coming away with the medal is just a bonus.” 

The final of the women’s 1500m freestyle at 9:12pm (AEST) will see Lani Pallister and Moesha Johnson competing. Pallister qualified second behind American powerhouse Katie Ledecky, while Johnson comes into the race after claiming world titles in the 5km and 10km open water events last week. 

At 9:50pm, Kaylee McKeown is set to race the final of the women’s 100m backstroke. McKeown qualified second, 0.23 seconds behind American Regan Smith. 

The world swimming championships are being broadcast on Channel 9. 

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Australia won the fifth and final T20 of its series against the West Indies in St Kitts and Nevis by three wickets, completing a series sweep. Here’s what you need to know.

Australia swept the West Indies 5-0, defeating the hosts of the series by three wickets in the final T20 today. 

Australia won the toss and captain Mitch Marsh elected to bowl first. The Australian bowling attack, led by player of the match Ben Dwarshuis with three wickets, limited the West Indies to 170 runs. Notably, spin bowler Adam Zampa took a wicket in his 100th T20 match for Australia. He is just the fourth player to reach the milestone. 

The Aussies then powered to victory within 17 overs. A shaky start saw Glenn Maxwell dismissed for a duck and Josh Inglis caught on 10 runs. Solid performances from Cameron Green (32), Tim David (30), Mitch Owen (37), and Aaron Hardie (28*) steadied the ship and guided Australia to victory. 

Green was named the player of the series, after the all-rounder made 205 runs across the five matches. 

Marsh told cricket.com.au: "We played some really good cricket across the board, I probably didn't expect to win five-nil – West Indies we've got a lot of respect for.”

Australia’s T20 team will now head to Darwin, where they will commence a three-match series against South Africa beginning on Sunday 10 August. South Africa were runners-up at last year’s T20 World Cup. That series will be followed by three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) between the same two countries. 

Australia’s women’s team is not in action until September, when they play India in a three-match ODI series ahead of the Women’s ODI World Cup in October.