The Australian Cross Country Skiing Championships in Sprint and Mass Start disciplines were held at Falls Creek on August 8-9. It was an exciting weekend of racing, with a strong international field and many close finishes in the head-to-head competitions.

In the men’s events, Switzerland was the dominant nation, with Valerio Leccardi winning the Sprint and Thomas Diezig winning the 30km Freestyle. In the women’s events Australian Esther Bottomley from Mt Beauty won the Sprint and Katherine Calder from New Zealand won the 15km Freestyle. The races were also part of the 2009 FIS Australia – New Zealand Cup (ANC).

The Swiss men were in great form in the Sprint, qualifying in the first three places and remaining unchallenged through to the A-Final. Other competitors had some bad luck, with Australian number one sprinter Paul Murray breaking a pole in the qualifying round and Wataru Omori from Japan falling in the semi-finals.

Mark van der Ploeg was the only Australian in the A-final, coming up against the Swiss trio of Leccardi, Diezig, and Gaudenz Flury. Van der Ploeg fought hard but was unable to make it onto the podium.
 
In the women’s Sprint qualification Calder was the fastest skier, posting a time four seconds faster than Bottomley the reigning Australian Sprint champion. However,  in the A-final Bottomley came out firing, dropping Calder in the first 200m and holding a lead all the way to the finish. Calder closed the gap in the latter part of the race but wasn’t close enough to force a lunge for the line. Third place went to NSW junior d’Arcy Baxter from Berridale ahead of her older NSW team-mate Aimee Watson from Sydney.

As the highest ranked U20 juniors in the open finals, Baxter and Callum Watson from Jindabyne became the Australian Junior Sprint Champions.

The men’s 30km Freestyle on Sunday was one of the most exciting championship races witnessed in Australian racing history. 2008 ANC champion Ben Sim from Cooma and Diezig skied away from the main pack on the first 7.5km loop, then took turns to attack each other throughout the rest of the race.

With neither skier able to make a break, it all came down to a finish sprint, Diezig claiming victory by half a ski length.

In contrast, Calder won the women’s 15km Freestyle relatively comfortably, just over two minutes ahead of Bottomley. Andrea Fancy from New Zealand took third place in a close race with Watson.

With three rounds down in the 2009 FIS Australia – New Zealand Cup there is a close battle for the top places. Diezig has a 30 points lead ahead of Sim in the men’s standings, while Bottomley leads by 20 points ahead of Calder.

The overall winner of the ANC receives their own personal quota place on World Cup in the 2009/2010 series. Next weekend there are two more rounds of competition at Perisher Valley, before the competition moves over the Tasman to the Snow Farm for the New Zealand Winter Games. The series concludes with Australia’s international ski marathon, the Kangaroo Hoppet at Falls Creek on August 29.

(Courtesy of The XC Files)

Full results are available at www.hoppet.com.au/xc