Ben Sim has become the first Australian skier to make it into the top 20 at a World Championship cross country skiing event in open, U23 or junior class.

Sim took 19th place in the 15km Classic at the 2008 World Under 23 Championship in Malles, Italy, skiing the last 5km of the race in the 14th fastest time to claim the top 20 result that he set as his main goal for the event and the season.

Australia's previous best result at a World Junior Championship was the 21st placing set by Esther Bottomley in the Sprint Freestyle event in 2003. The best open World Championship result is 31st by Paul Murray in the Sprint Classic at the 2005 World Championships.

Aimee Watson also put in a great performance to take 39th place in the women's 10km Classic.

In other cross country results, Paul Murray finished 11.5 seconds behind the fastest qualifier in the Sprint Classic in Stockholm, some five seconds slower than he needed to be to make the finals. He ended up in 60th place, and followed that two days later with 77th place in the Sprint Freestyle qualification in Lahti, , Finland, 13 seconds behind Andy Newell from the USA.

(Courtesy of The XC Files)