Today's sport news: What you need to know

Latest - Queensland have claimed first blood in this year's State of Origin after an unlikely come-from-behind win in the series opener in Adelaide.

A Maroons side including eight uncapped players, who were also the biggest outsiders for an Origin match in more than 20 years, trailed 10-0 at halftime against New South Wales on Wednesday night.

But the young Queensland side stormed back in the second half, scoring three tries in a 14-minute period to take an 18-10 lead with 15 minutes to play.

Blues winger Josh Addo-Carr's second try of the match in the dying stages set up a thrilling finish but Queensland were able to hang on for a famous win.

The result meant New South Wales needed to win game two in Sydney next week to have any chance of completing a three-peat in Brisbane on November 18.

Double delight for Harris

Warriors forward Tohu Harris has been named the third winner of the Simon Mannering Medal, breaking captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck's three-year reign as the club's player of the year.

As well as claiming the premier award jointly determined by the coaching staff and players, the 28-year-old Harris was named the players' player of the year at the club's annual awards on Wednesday night.

The twin accolades capped a stellar season for Harris who was last month named in the Dally M NRL team of the year after appearing in all 20 matches of the most challenging campaign in the club's history.

At the end of the regular season, he ranked fifth among all players for most post-contact metres (1339) and seventh for most metres gained (3465), an exceptional average of 173 metres a game, the fourth best among all forwards. He was also seventh for most tackles (845) - an average of 42 a game - and 10th for most runs (352).

Tuivasa-Sheck, the team's other outstanding performer throughout the season, was acknowledged with two awards.

He was named the People's Choice player of the year and the clubman of the year.

Coll comes back in Doha

New Zealand squash world No 5 Paul Coll was forced to come from 2-1 down against France's No 17 Gregoire Marche to book his place in the Qatar Classic quarter-finals in Doha.

Coll is no stranger to the glass court in Doha, having reached the PSA World Championship final on the same court 12 months ago.

The 28-year-old from Greymouth came into his own in the fifth game to stop Marche's rhythm and see out the 7-11 11-9 9-11 11-6 11-5 victory in 83 minutes.

Coll will face world No 6 Marwan ElShorbagy for a place in the semis overnight on Thursday (NZ time).

Sydney to Hobart still on

This year's Sydney to Hobart yacht race will proceed with COVID-19 measures in place following Tasmania's decision to open borders to New South Wales, the race organisers said on Wednesday.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) confirmed the Boxing Day start of the race with a 100-strong fleet following "a lengthy period of consultation with state governments, health authorities and other key stakeholders."

Previous winners Ichi Ban, Alive and Quest are among the confirmed starters but several international competitors have been forced out by the ongoing global restrictions following the pandemic.

Teams will be briefed online, social events around the race will not take place, and the organisers will prefer fans to watch digital livestream than throng the marina to follow Australia's most prestigious yacht race.

- Reuters

Community sporting groups get funding boost.

More than 2,000 groups have received relief funding from Sport NZ's $15 million Community Resilience Fund to help alleviate the financial impact from COVID-19.

The second phase of funding is part of the $265 million Sports Recovery Package announced in the Budget and aimed at providing support to help play, active recreation and sport organisations recover as a result of COVID-19.

The fund allowed applications of up to $25,000 to cover both fixed and operational costs for organisations which wasn't the case first time around.

"The broadening of the eligibility criteria from the previous Community Resilience Fund has meant more organisations were able to apply for support, including applicants that were not affiliated to Sport NZ national partners. This has helped a wider range of community organisations to continue to deliver activities and programmes that have a key role in maintaining individual and community health and wellbeing." said Sport NZ CEO Peter Miskimmin.

Other investment supporting the sector as part of the Sport Recovery Package include the $68 million Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa Fund for community-based programmes and projects helping children and young people get active, as well as additional investment to provide ongoing support for Sport NZ's national partners and their national leagues and key programmes.

Maradona bouncing back after surgery

Argentine football great Diego Maradona is in "excellent" condition following surgery for a blood clot on the brain, with his lawyer discounting the possibility that the 60-year-old could go to Venezuela or Cuba to recuperate.

"The last medical report was excellent," said Matias Morla on Thursday (NZ time). "Let's stay strong and we'll get through this."

Morla said the former World Cup winner would complete his recuperation in Argentina, where he is coach of first division side Gimnasia y Esgrima.

Maradona, who propelled Argentina to the World Cup in 1986 and who's considered one of the greatest players of all time, has suffered frequent periods in hospital over the years, often due to his extravagant lifestyle.

Leopoldo Luque, Maradona's personal physician who performed the operation, said he had "coped well with the surgery."

- Reuters

Andreescu ready for Aus Open

Canada's Bianca Andreescu has fully recovered from a knee injury that has forced her to miss the entire 2020 tennis season and says she's confident of playing the Australian Open in January.

The 20-year-old, who won the US Open last year after breaking through when reaching the final of the 2019 ASB Classic, has not played on tour since the 2019 WTA Finals in Shenzhen where she retired with a left knee injury.

"I'm doing really well. The virus kind of pushed me back, and some little personal things here and there, but right now I'm good, I'm training hard ... I'm really looking forward to 2021," the Canadian told the Tennis Majors website.

"I'm perfectly healthy. I just really wanted to take time to build everything in my life, and I think this time off really helped me do that."

World No.7 Andreescu said she will be "one hundred per cent" in Melbourne to play the year's first Grand Slam.

- Reuters