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Shooting and Skiing, Coaching and Competing

Cameron Morton and Kerryn Rim begin their trek toward Nagano

 In 1994 , Kerryn Rim produced one of Australia's best ever results in the Winter Olympic games. In the biathlon distance event, she finished in 8th place, surprising most of Australia's skiing world. Now, four years later, Kerryn is back on the trail of her third Winter Olympics, this time set in Nagano, Japan. When Kerryn's former coach, Ewen MacKenzie (former skier and coach for the British Ski Team) was unable to travel to Nagano due to other committments, Cameron Morton stepped into the vacancy.

Until recently, Cameron Morton was a competitor in both biathlon and cross country skiing. He competed in the World Junior Championships in both sports in 1994, was part of the Australian Ski Institute cross country squad during the 95/96 season, and last competed in biathlon World Cup in 1996. He is currently studying Applied Science - Sport Coaching and Administration at Deakin University. As well as coaching some biathletes, he also does some tennis and athletics coaching as part of his university course.

Though this is Cameron's first overseas trip as a coach, he seems to have a very professional attitude to both his new role and the goal of producing competitive results at the Winter Olympics.

"In some ways, coaching is not much different to being an athlete. You still have to plan and set goals, and work to achieve them, but in the end you're not the one out there getting the results. Maybe as an athlete you tend to have a more narrow focus. The coach needs to see more of the bigger picture.

"It has worked out quite well (training Kerryn) because it fits in with my 3rd year practicum studies. I keep a diary, set and evaluate goals - either for improving Kerryn's performance or my own (as a coach), and when I get back I'll write a 5000 word thesis on the whole project. It is a great learning experience. Other students have to complete a self-learning task, where you look at yourself and try improve to as a coach. What I'm doing is something special, an opportunity most other students wouldn't have.

"Despite this, I wouldn't be here if Kerryn wasn't paying for my expenses. I have a family to support back in Australia, that's part of the reason why I stopped being a skier in the first place. We both have kids at home, so in many respects we understand each other.

"Before I left Australia, I set myself a personal goal for the trip - to become a better person. Talking to Kerryn, I discovered that she had independently set the exact same goal. So in the end, no matter what the race results are, we can both come out in front."

This weekend (December 6/7) Kerryn competes in the World Cup opener in Lillehammer. This is her first World Cup since the 1996 World Championships in Rupholding. This will also be the first time she has competed in a Biathlon Sprint-Pursuit race. This type of race started last season, and follows a format along the same lines as cross country pursuit races. On the first day there is 7.5 km sprint race, with two shooting stages. On the second day, the race is 10km with 4 shooting stages, and competitors start in the finishing order from the first day.

Locations and competitions for the rest of the season are roughly set out as follows.

Ostersund, Sweden: World Cup, distance and sprint events

Antholz, Italy: Altitude training

Oberhof, Germany: Biathlon Trophy invitational, sprint-pursuit event

Rupholding, Germany: World Cup, distance and sprint events

Antholz, Italy: World Cup, distance and sprint events; Remain in Antholz for altitude training.

Travel to Nagano for Winter Olympics

The altitude training sections are quite specific. 17 days each time at Antholz, 2 weeks prior to the important competitions. Antholz is at about 1650m above seas level, which is about the lower limit of what can really be classified as altitude training. This is probably a good thing. Training at high altitudes can be a risky thing if you don't carefully monitor the body's response. Perhaps the most important thing about choosing Antholz is that the location and formula has worked for Kerryn before.

Kerryn's husband Trevor and son Daniel will fly over to join the team in the second stint in Antholz. This was set down as a pre-requisite before the whole Olympic campaign began, some time with the family overseas. The second stay at Antholz will only go ahead if Kerryn has been selected for Nagano. Though she has qualified, selection will not take place until after the Rupholding and Antholz World Cup races.

"The selection policy is quite thick. In simple terms, Kerryn is qualified to go unless someone else skis faster."

That "someone else" is Lynn-Maree Cranage. Lynn-Maree and Kerryn shared the honours at the Australian Championships this year. While Kerryn's past international results are more impressive, Cranage is a very talented skier and has the potential to take a step up. It is perhaps unfortunate that Australia's brightest Olympic biathlon prospects are both women. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) have stipulated that only one male and one female from Australia may compete in Nagano. This is based on Nation Cup points - the more points a country gains in the World Cup season, the more starters they can have. In Albertville and Lillehammer, when Australia had a larger team competing in World Cup in the season before, Australia could have two female competitors in the Olympics.

Cameron are Kerryn are not alone in their Olympic campaign. Volunteer assistant coach Tobias Westman of Sweden was in Australia in 1995 for the Kangaroo Hoppet. He has competed in cross country for several years and now also competes in some ski orienteering competitions. As well as helping with technique training, waxing, and race support, Cameron also values Tobias' services in other areas.

"He's a good friend, very easy going, and someone I can bounce ideas off. Also, with two people travelling together alone for so long, you can go crazy. A third person will help to ease that pressure.

"Tobias has also lent us his car. We met him at the airport in Sweden, he handed over his new SAAB, said "Idre is that direction", and let us go. We had to drive around the airport before we started to get used to driving on the other side of the road. It was a long journey staight off the plane. We had to take turns sleeping and waking each other up the last 100km or so, but we made it."

As a trade for the loan of his car, Tobias will come to Australia next year, stay at Cameron's house and use his car. It's an arrangement very beneficial to both parties. Cameron estimates that it will save them "about 2000 dollars or even more". After Östersund, Tobias and Cameron will drive down with all the skis and equipment and pick up Kerryn at the airport in Munich

 Talking to Cameron while he works on Kerryn's skis, he comes across as being very analytical of the whole athlete/coach relationship. The mental side of training is very important. He is certainly not afraid of trying out different ideas.

"Kerryn tends to yak on a lot in the morning and has a lot of good ideas. I stick a tape recorder in my pocket and record our discussions. To get things rolling, I put a few questions to Kerryn on training and goals and how she is feeling. From it, we usually work out our daily plan, as well as reviewing how everything is going overall. It is pretty interesting to listen back to the tape.

"She is pretty self-organised, she's been doing it (competing and travelling) so long by herself. She has a good idea of how to perform and what she need to do to get there. It is up to me to help her bring it all out. My role is to keep her focussed, keep her from doing too much and to keep in control of everything."

 On the question of results and performance goals for the season, Cameron claims it is something they will re-evaluate again and again as they go along. Since the 1994 Winter Olympics, Kerryn's best results were in the low 30's at the 1996 World Championships.

"A week ago I was thinking, do I throw her into the first international competition now or wait a while, it could be tough. (Kerryn competed in a Sweden Cup race 4 days after arriving leaving Australia.) Now, after this first race, I think if she continues to improve, she really does have a chance of a medal. She said to me after the race "I feel as good as I did in '94, I haven't had the results since then, but for the first time I think that medals are a real possibility.

"We haven't seen half the world race yet, so we have to keep our heads screwed on and not get carried away. We'll re-evaluate again down in Middle Europe, and see what is realistic at every stage. If we get through to the Olympics injury and illness free, then we wont be happy with anything less than top 20. That's the benchmark. But that's the lower limit.

Biathlon seems like a tricky sport. Coming into peak skiing form for an important race is hard enough to calculate, but so much depends on the shooting as well. You can be leading the race coming into the final shoot, drop your bundle, and end up outside the top 10. As such there are many competitors who have a chance to win.

Kerryn Rim is one very tough competitor, and shooting is her strong side. Cameron Morton is a very self-aware coach looking for every angle to get the best out of his competitor, both physically and mentally. Whatever the results at Nagano, you know one thing. Cameron's report will make some interesting reading.

 

World Cup Biathlon results can be found at http://www.ibu.at/ 


XC is the official website of the Skiing Australia Cross Country Committee. It is produced with the assistance of the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Ski Institute and the Kangaroo Hoppet. The editor can be contacted via hoppet@netc.net.au.