For those who celebrate, it’s World Orienteering Week. Wow.

There’s a massive weekend of sport ahead - enjoy!

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The number of matches the Gold Coast Suns have played at Tio Stadium in Darwin without a loss. Last night, the Suns extended their unbeaten record at the venue, beating Hawthorn 104-96. One welcome face in the crowd was four-time premiership winner with the Hawks, Cyril Rioli, who made his first appearance at a Hawthorn game since settling a racism dispute with the club last year. On the live ladder, the Suns are now in second and the Hawks are in fourth.

“We are always chasing greatness. The group is all on the same page, we are willing to work really hard and we are not going to rest on the 2-0. We want to create history.”
NSW prop Simaima Taufa, after the Blues beat the Maroons 26-6 in Sydney last night and sealed an overall women’s State of Origin series win. It marks the first time that NSW have won women’s State of Origin since its expansion from a single match to a series in 2023. It’s also the first time the Blues have won in Sydney since 2019. The third and final match of the series will be played in Newcastle on Thursday, 29 May.

Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila was Africa’s first Olympic champion, winning the marathon at the 1960 Games in Rome. Amazingly, he ran the race barefoot and in a world record time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 16.2 seconds. He then became the first back-to-back Olympic marathon champion when he won at Tokyo 1964 (with shoes on).

⛳ Australian golfer Cam Davis is tied for second place at the U.S. PGA Championship after the opening round. Davis finished the round five shots under par and is two strokes off the leader, Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas. World number one Scottie Scheffler is five shots off the lead and very much within striking distance. The other tournament favourite, Rory McIlroy, had a less-than-stellar start, finishing 10 shots off the lead and tied for 98th. 

🎾 At the Italian Open, American Coco Gauff won a final-set tiebreak over China’s Qinwen Zheng to advance to the final. The 21-year-old is now set to take on home favourite Jasmine Paolini, the first Italian woman in 11 years to make the final in Rome. Paolini cruised through her semi-final, beating American Peyton Stearns in straight sets. In the men’s draw, the semi-finals are set with world number one Jannik Sinner playing American 11th seed Tommy Paul, and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz taking on another home favourite in Lorenzo Musetti. After his victory over Paul, Sinner has not dropped a set in his last 11 matches against top 10 opponents. 

🚴‍♂️ Aussie cyclist Kaden Groves won the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia, outpacing his rivals in a sprint finish. The stage saw a massive crash with 70km to go, with some cyclists, including Aussie Jai Hindley, being forced to abandon the race due to injury. Race organisers neutralised the stage after the crash, meaning that no points, time gaps, or bonuses were awarded. Australian Michael Storer remains ninth in the overall standings, 46 seconds behind leader Mads Pedersen. 

🏉 American rugby star Ilona Maher, one of the sport’s most high-profile players, is in Canberra this weekend as the USA Eagles take on the Wallaroos as part of the Pacific Four series. Maher has 4.9 million followers on Instagram, the most of any rugby player worldwide, and will start in the centres as both teams look for their first win of this year’s series. In their respective opening matches, the U.S. were beaten by Canada, and the Wallaroos lost to New Zealand. 

Formula One returns this weekend following a one-week break, with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Italy. Australian Oscar Piastri will be doing his best to hold onto his lead in the Drivers' Championship. 

Piastri heads into this weekend with a 16-point lead ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is a further 16 points behind Norris. At the last race in Miami, McLaren were utterly dominant, with Piastri and Norris finishing one-two. The next best was Mercedes’ George Russell, more than 35 seconds off the pace. 

In the lead-up to Emilia Romagna, Piastri insisted that this race would not prove as simple. He said: “I expect the competition to be closer than it was in Miami… if we falter a little bit, we’ve got plenty of competition that can beat us.”

Emilia-Romagna is a region in northern Italy. The race takes place on the Imola circuit. Of the drivers on the current grid, Verstappen has the best record here, having won three of the last four Italian Grand Prix since it relocated to Imola in 2020. 

The Imola circuit is notorious for being the location of the crash that claimed the life of famed driver Ayrton Senna in 1994. 

The race will begin on Sunday at 11:00pm (AEST).

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A new study is being conducted by the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) to help address the mistreatment of concussed athletes, especially women. 

Researchers hope their study will lead to improved diagnosis of concussion, allowing doctors to give more accurate guidance on when and if athletes can return to play without the risk of further brain injury. 

To find out more, I spoke to lead researcher Patria Hume. 

Hume is a professor of Human Performance at AUT, which is conducting the study in collaboration with global healthcare company Abbott.

The researchers at AUT will use technology provided by Abbott, which Hume described as a “super smart blood detective machine to help us find the best times to collect blood samples after a concussion.”

Research has shown that female athletes are up to twice as likely to sustain a concussion as male athletes. 

Hume said: “With this technology, we can uncover insights that will lead to early detection, better treatment options, and personalised care plans tailored to the unique needs of each woman.”

After a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the makeup of an injured person's blood changes. This means that blood tests can play an important role in diagnosing a concussion. One part of Hume and her team’s research will be determining when the best time to test an athlete’s blood is to diagnose head trauma. 

The research could also play an important role in recovery, with Hume and her team hoping to identify the biomarkers in a blood test that indicate an athlete is safe to return to play. 

Additionally, the research could help doctors accurately determine the severity of an injury and whether or not a CT scan is necessary. 

The research will not only help athletes but also anyone with head trauma. The top three causes for concussion, according to Hume, are sport, car accidents, and gender-based violence. Hume and her team will be working with the emergency department at a hospital in Wellington, testing the broad range of patients admitted with head injuries.