It’s Thursday, and if you haven’t already got your footy tips in (for the NRL or AFL), here is the reminder you needed.

As it stands, TDA’s video editor Orla is leading our office tipping comp.

Her advice? Always tip the favourites. 

If you’re curious, the sport guy (me) is not doing too badly either, sitting in second. This year’s my year.

3 minutes and 58.35 seconds
The time it took 15-year-old Kiwi Sam Ruthe to run a mile in Auckland last night. Ruthe, who turns 16 next month, is the first 15-year-old and youngest person in history to have run a mile (1600m) in under four minutes. Ruthe said: “This was probably my favourite goal I’ve reached. Definitely enjoyed this one the most with all the people here supporting me.”

“The Australian public… should expect their national team to produce and to play good football. Then I expect every Australian to get behind the team tomorrow, which is what we want and we know that that’ll help us tomorrow night.”
Socceroos coach Tony Popovic speaking to reporters on Wednesday ahead of tonight’s World Cup Qualifier between Australia and Indonesia. With five matches remaining in the third round of World Cup Qualifying, the Socceroos sit second in Group C behind Japan. The top two teams in the group earn automatic qualification to the 2026 World Cup, while the third and fourth will head to another round of qualifying. The first match between Australia and Indonesia in this round ended in a 0-0 draw.

The record for the largest victory in an international soccer match belongs to the Socceroos. In a World Cup qualification match in 2002, the Aussies beat American Samoa 31-0. 

Sydney Roosters hooker Brandon Smith will leave the club at the end of this season to join rival club South Sydney Rabbitohs on a two-year contract. Smith is currently sidelined with an ACL injury, but is expected to return and see out the 2025 season with the Roosters from Round 15. Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett has long expressed a desire to work with Smith, who was close to signing with the Redcliffe Dolphins in 2021 while he was coaching there. Bennett said last week: "I wanted him at the Dolphins and nothing's changed".

Nick Kyrgios has won his first professional tennis match since 2022, defeating American Mackenzie McDonald in the opening round of the Miami Open. Kyrgios came back from one set down to win the match 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 2022 Wimbledon finalist will play world number 23 Karen Khachanov in the second round. Meanwhile, Australia’s top-ranked women’s player Kimberly Birrell is also in the second round after winning her opening round match in a final set tiebreak. She is set to play Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk next. 

The 2027 men’s and women’s Tour de France races will begin in the UK. The men’s tour will begin with a Grand Départ in Edinburgh and then complete three stages over three days through Scotland, England, and Wales. The women’s tour will also race the first three stages in the UK, beginning in Yorkshire in northern England. UK Sport events director Simon Morton said: “This will be the biggest free spectator event ever hosted in the UK.”

The Illawarra Hawks have forced a fifth-game NBL Finals decider after beating Melbourne United 80-71 at John Cain Arena. It is the seventh straight match United have lost at their home arena.

The Hawks started without one of its star players, Trey Kell, who was sidelined with a knee injury. They were dealt another blow when Sam Froling left the court in the second quarter with an achilles injury. Davo Hickey stepped up in the absence of Kell and Froling, scoring 22 points for the away side.

The game saw the lead swing back and forth, with United leading at halftime by three points and the Hawks leading at three-quarter time by three points.

The Hawks’ win means that all four games of the NBL Finals series so far have been won by the away team.

The deciding match of the 2025 NBL Finals series will be played at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong on Sunday. You can watch the match, which tips off at 2:30pm, on Channel 10, Foxtel, and Kayo.

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Jordan Chiles, the U.S. gymnast who was stripped of a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, has revealed she still has the medal awarded to her on the podium. Chiles made the revelation on a recent episode of sport podcast The Trophy Room with Candace Parker.

In the women’s floor routine, Chiles originally placed fifth, but an appeal by her coach saw the 23-year-old move to third. Romania's Ana Bărbosu was knocked off the podium into fourth spot and Chiles was awarded the bronze medal at the official Olympic ceremony.

Two Romanian gymnasts, including Bărbosu, then made a successful appeal to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), claiming Chiles’ coach’s appeal at the Games had not been filed within the cutoff time of 60 seconds. Bărbosu was awarded a bronze medal in a ceremony in Bucharest after the conclusion of the Olympics.

In September, Chiles filed an appeal in the Supreme Court of Switzerland to overturn the ruling.

Chiles’ lawyers have asked the Court to force the CAS to consider key video evidence. The footage was captured by a documentary crew present at the Olympic floor routine event.

Chiles’ case has not been resolved.

She told Parker, an ex-WNBA player: "Whatever happens with the bronze, it's still a bronze in my head, it's still a bronze in my heart".

Chiles is currently studying and competing at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Already a two-time Olympian, she told Parker that she is 50/50 on competing at the 2028 LA Games.

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