Rain fails to dampen Aussie spirit and other top stories.

• Rain fails to dampen Aussie spirit

  

  TENNIS: Australia will find out tomorrow who it plays after a return to the Davis Cup World Group.Rain in Sydney washed out the final day's play of the tie against Slovakia but with the Aussies 3-0 up, they had already secured a return to the higher echelons of the competition.Australia has not won the Davis Cup since 2003 and lost out in a tight clash in last year's quarter-finals to eventual winner Great Britain.Captain Lleyton Hewitt said with the likes of Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic in t..

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• Belgian up there with best: Guardiola

  

  FOOTBALL: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says Kevin de Bruyne is behind only Lionel Messi as the best player in the world after another star performance.The Belgian scored City's first goal in the 4-0 drubbing of Bournemouth to make it five wins out of five in the English Premier League.City now has a club record eight successive wins out of eight in all competitions this campaign and sits on top of the EPL ladder.De Bruyne now has 18 goals and 16 assists in 48 games for the Sky Blues an..

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• Aussies sail off into the sunset with golden glow

  

  SAILING: The sport will not be a part of the Paralympics in Tokyo in four years time, but Australia has dominated in the waters off Rio.Liesl Tesch and Dan Fitzgibbon defended their two-person SKUD18 crown from London, while the three-man Sonar crew of Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Jonathan Harris made it a sailing double.Matthew Bugg had been hoping to make it a golden treble in all three of the sailing classes in Rio but following a race-10 disqualification, he had to settle for silver a..

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• Watson has a rare victory in pool

  

  SWIMMING: Rachael Watson has rounded off a successful Paralympics in the pool with a gold in the women's S4 50m freestyle.The 24-year-old from Brisbane (pictured), who has cerebral palsy and motor neuropathy following Guilain-Barre Syndrome, became the first Australian Paralympic swimmer classed S5 or below, to win gold this millennium, setting a new Paralympic record of 40.13.Watson's win meant the Aussies finished the swimming campaign with nine gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze medals.Her win to..

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• Flanagan backs Gallen to play in prelim

  

  RUGBY LEAGUE: Cronulla Sharks coach Shane Flanagan says skipper Paul Gallen will be fit for Friday night's preliminary final with the North Queensland Cowboys.Gallen missed the Sharks' win over the Canberra Raiders in the qualifying final two weeks ago with a back problem but Flanagan expects the veteran Test and State of Origin star to be back for this week's clash at Allianz Stadium."Gal will be right,” Flanagan said at Sharks training at Southern Cross Group Stadium yesterday."He was never g..

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• Lawyers called in over racial slur on Real Housewives

  

  LAWYERS have been called in over an upcoming episode of The Real Housewives of Auckland, to try to block parts of the episode airing. The controversy erupted after housewife Julia Sloane allegedly used a racial slur towards fellow housewife Michelle Blanchard. The episode is set to screen on Tuesday night. Read more: Lawyers called over Real Housewives of Auckland racial stoush Writing on The Spinoff, editor Duncan Greive confirmed the slur is included in the episode and explained ho..

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• Big crash shakes up Paralympics cycling road race

  

  CYCLING: Two silver medals and a sixth place. Not a bad effort for Kyle Bridgwood in his first Paralympics. The Sunshine Coast rider finished his competition on Sunday with the C4-5 road race, finishing sixth. Although Bridgwood was not involved in the controversy surrounding the end of the race, compatriot Alistair Donohoe was at the centre of it. Donohoe was in a sprint with Ukraine's Yehor Dementyev to the finish line for gold. However the pair crashed metres from the finish an..

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• Swim with the whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef

  

  EXMOUTH, Western Australia. It's the land that time forgot, a place where clocks are optional, shorts and t-shirts mandatory, snorkelling gear obligatory and the word "hurry” banned from common use.Seafood is fresh, meals hearty, fast food chains non-existent and the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef is so close to the coast you can walk off the beach in most places and touch it.Exmouth is also one of the few populated places on the entire planet that intersects the whale shark travel route a..

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• DARREN PALMER: How to make a house a home

  

  DARREN PALMER: How to make a house a home DARREN Palmer might be a judge of some of the trendiest spaces on The Block, but admits he doesn't follow them.The interior designer is a big believer in simply creating a home that suits our needs and supports our lives. A home should be something much more personal, says the author of HomeSpace."There isn't a family unit we call nuclear any more and everyone seems to run their own lives, in their own way, with their chosen places of habitation refle..

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• Pocock breaks hand against Pumas

  

  RUGBY: The Wallabies have been hit with a huge blow with star back-rower David Pocock ruled out of the rest of the Rugby Championship with a broken hand.The Brumbies forward was forced from the field in Saturday night's 36-20 defeat of Argentina in Perth just before half-time.He went for scans and those revealed the break, meaning he will now miss the final two Tests of the Rugby Championship series against South Africa in Pretoria and Argentina in London.Coach Michael Cheika said Pocock, who w..

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