It was a combination of young and old at the top of the men's 10km freestyle at the Australian Championship in Perisher Valley on Saturday August 18, with the ages of the top six places reading 22, 38, 17, 34, 30, 25. Ben Sim topped the result list with his second distance title of the season, with three-time Winter Olympian Anthony Evans taking second place ahead of 17-year-old Alex Almoukov.
Four-time Kangaroo Hoppet winner Ben Derrick was jibbed out of the podium by Almoukov for the second race in a row, taking fourth place just three seconds back, while last week's 15km champion Paul Murray managed just fifth place, a nose ahead of Chris Darlington.
In the women's 5km freestyle, KT Calder took the title, with Aimee Watson holding off Esther Bottomley by just seven seconds for the silver.
The following day, In the national classic events, Paul Murray produced his race of the season to win the men's 10km classic, defeating closest rival Ben Sim by 1:25. Chris Darlington took third place ahead of Neil Van der Ploeg and Alex Almoukov.
KT Calder made it back to back wins by taking the 5km classic, overcoming a major challenge from Aimee Watson, who trailed by just 5 seconds at the half-way mark. She went on to win by 31 seconds. Esther Bottomley collected the bronze medal ahead of juniors Chloe McConville and Juliette Booth.