Esther Bottomley, a member of the national cross country ski team based at Falls Creek, has finished third in the recent Fischen International Night Sprint.
Esther Bottomley, a member of the national cross country ski team based at Falls Creek, has finished third in the recent Fischen International Night Sprint.
It was a race run by the local community to capitalised on the opportunity of having the world's best cross country skiers just down the road at Oberstdorf, the venue for the 2005 Nordic World Championships.
Esther Bottomley's podium place is quite an achievement particularly as she was competing against very experienced competitors included three World Cup podium sprinters from Norway, the top sprinters from the USA and, as would be expected, in Germany, some pretty handy Germans.
Bottomley qualified in 4th place for the finals behind Kikkan Randall of the USA and a couple of German sprint team members. In her semi-final Randall fell only 30m into the race, allowing her to lead the pack in semi-cruise mode for the entire first lap.
However, Esther got a rude shock when Zeller from Germany and Randall both overtook her at the end of the finish straight starting the second lap.
Fired-up into action Esther sprinted past both into the final straight and won her way into the A-final.
In the A-final Esther took the lead and retained fitst place for the first lap. Randall overtook Esther at the start of the last lap and retained the lead to the finishing line.
Meanwhile there was quite a challenge from Klaus, the German sprinter, and they both gave it their all and lunged across the finish, in one of the more spectacular finishes seen in a women's sprint for a while.
When the smoke cleared Esther had secured third place and a big smile from a very entertaining evening. Big crowd, great atmosphere!
Paul Murray, also a member of the national cross country ski team based at Falls Creek, qualified in 16th place at the entertaining Fischen International Night Sprint.
Murray just made the cut into the finals but was knocked out in his 1/4 final by the fastest qualifier (a German sprinter) and former World Junior Champion Bredl from Germany.
Bredl went on to win the A-final.
Another cross country sprinter Andrew Mock was 19th in qualifying and didn't make the finals.
Story courtesy ski.com.au
It was a race run by the local community to capitalised on the opportunity of having the world's best cross country skiers just down the road at Oberstdorf, the venue for the 2005 Nordic World Championships.
Esther Bottomley's podium place is quite an achievement particularly as she was competing against very experienced competitors included three World Cup podium sprinters from Norway, the top sprinters from the USA and, as would be expected, in Germany, some pretty handy Germans.
Bottomley qualified in 4th place for the finals behind Kikkan Randall of the USA and a couple of German sprint team members. In her semi-final Randall fell only 30m into the race, allowing her to lead the pack in semi-cruise mode for the entire first lap.
However, Esther got a rude shock when Zeller from Germany and Randall both overtook her at the end of the finish straight starting the second lap.
Fired-up into action Esther sprinted past both into the final straight and won her way into the A-final.
In the A-final Esther took the lead and retained fitst place for the first lap. Randall overtook Esther at the start of the last lap and retained the lead to the finishing line.
Meanwhile there was quite a challenge from Klaus, the German sprinter, and they both gave it their all and lunged across the finish, in one of the more spectacular finishes seen in a women's sprint for a while.
When the smoke cleared Esther had secured third place and a big smile from a very entertaining evening. Big crowd, great atmosphere!
Paul Murray, also a member of the national cross country ski team based at Falls Creek, qualified in 16th place at the entertaining Fischen International Night Sprint.
Murray just made the cut into the finals but was knocked out in his 1/4 final by the fastest qualifier (a German sprinter) and former World Junior Champion Bredl from Germany.
Bredl went on to win the A-final.
Another cross country sprinter Andrew Mock was 19th in qualifying and didn't make the finals.
Story courtesy ski.com.au
