CROSS COUNTRY SKIING: Lillehammer 2016 bound cross country skiers Liam Burton and Lilly Boland have warmed up for the Winter Youth Olympic Games at the Austrian Championships.

Racing as a part of the Australian Junior Team in what were strong fields in Saalfelden, Boland and Burton competed in both classic and pursuit events across the two days of competition.

The women were off first and Boland finished 40th in the 5km classic event after a navigational error pushed her down the rankings.

Competing up an age group in order to receive FIS points,17-year-old Burton was the leading Australian in the men’s 10km classic claiming 40th, 4:19 back from Sergey Malyshev of Kazakhstan.

Tough conditions to begin the second day ensured that ski selection and waxing were going to be crucial results and the Aussie coaches and athletes were spot on with their choices.

With the pursuit events seeing the winning athlete of the sprint event start first and the rest of the field pursuing at the time gap they finished with the day prior, Boland had some catching up to do.

The 16-year-old from Ulladulla made up for the disappointing result in the sprint by clocking the 23rd fastest time of the day to claim 35th position.

Burton, who hails from Jindabyne, put in another solid performance throughout the four 2.5km laps to move up to 36th position.

Burton and Boland will now finalise preparations for Lillehammer 2016 at the Alpen Cup in Switzerland before getting the chance to ski at the home of cross country skiing in Norway.

The pair will join 15 other Australians at the second Winter Youth Olympic Games where the green and gold will also compete in biathlon, luge, short track speed skating, alpine skiing, ice hockey skills challenge, freestyle snowboard (slopestyle and halfpipe), freestyle skiing (slopestyle and halfpipe), snowboard cross and ski cross. 

Matt Bartolo & Australian Cross Country