Amanda Lulham

Sydney skipper Sam Haynes has upsized for a tilt at winning a second Sydney to Hobart yacht race overall but had his news upstaged by a cute but unusual crew of special guests.

She was once dubbed the fittest woman in Australia but there’s no going back to the race that made her famous for iron star Hayley Bateup - not even for a special anniversary.

When Olympic diving medal prospect Maddison Keeney reached for a dinner plate or put her arms above her head, searing pain shot through her body.

There’s an “electric’’ rising star, speedsters and sisters ready to suit up for Australia at the world life saving titles as the sport continues it push for Brisbane 2032.

The retirement list for one of the hardest Sydney ton Hobart yacht races in recent times now stands at 18.

Christian Beck’s LawConnect has pulled off one of the great comebacks of world sport, snatching the line honours win in the Sydney to Hobart from defending champion Andoo Comanche in an absolute thriller on an almost windless Derwent River.

He’s used to the high speed racing of an 18-footer skimming across Sydney Harbour for a couple of hours each week but Alex Marinelli’s next sailing challenge will take a lot longer, be a lot wetter and far more testing.

When a group of rugby’s most precocious young talent runs onto the field in Canberra next week they will be creating history and be part of a new pathway for youngsters with big dreams of playing professional football for their country.

Ironman Jy Timperley should have been preparing to take on the best ironmen in the country at Maroubra this weekend but is instead preparing for a couple more bouts of surgery, for some bone and cartilage to grow in a lab and to have his injured ankle rebroken and fixed.

Northern Beaches teenager Connor Maggs is in the Nutri-Grain series for the remainder of the series after Queenslander Jy Timperley revealed he will requite more surgery on an injured nkle.