Ben Sim has hit the northern winter season in great shape, scoring two impressive results in the Beitosprinten last weekend. Sim was 35th in the 15km Freestyle and 42nd in the 10km Classic, finishing each race just over two minutes behind the Norwegian winners Petter Northug and Martin Sundby, both of whom are potential World Cup winners in the coming weeks. In addition to the strong Norwegian fields the national teams of Switzerland, Slovakia, Japan, Italy, Russia and the USA were competing. Sim's performances caught the attention of spectators and other athletes in Beitostolen, and bode well for the World Cup coming up next weekend on the same track.
Aimee Watson and Callum Watson also had solid opening races. Aimee was 57th in the 10km Freestyle and 55th in the 5km Classic, and within 15% of a charged-up Marit Bjoergen of Norway in the classic event (Bjorgen won the freestyle by nearly a minute and the classic by 23 seconds). Callum finished 102nd and just under 15% behind the winner on both days. The men's starting fields were limited to 128 starters based on FIS points and Callum only received confirmation of his start in the classic race the night before.
The same weekend, Esther Bottomley finished 20th in the women's Classic Sprint in Bruksvallarna. Waxing was tricky and Bottomley only just qualified for the finals in 30th place, but the 26 year old from Mt Beauty was more competitive in the finals when she opted to double pole the 1.4km course. Leading out the first quarter-final ahead of 2009 overall World Cup winner Justyna Kowalcyzk from Poland, Bottomley was reeled in on the steeper hills but held on for fourth place ahead of Maria Rydqvist from Sweden and 2006 Olympic Sprint gold medalist Chandra Crawford from Canada.
The Australian men in Bruksvallarna made the wrong choice for the qualification, opting to use classic skis when most of the eventual finalists double poled on skating skis. Paul Murray and Mark van der Ploeg finished in 40th and 58th place from the field of 92 starters, but though they were disappointed not to be in the finals the boys were at least satisfied to have a good classic sprint hit-out before the World Cup event in Kuusamo where double poling without wax won't be an option.
(Courtesy of The XC Files)