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Race Reports
Press Releases- Race Results

August 12 - Australian Long Distance Championship

The sun shone down on the inaugural Snowy Mountains Classic, which has taken the place of the Paddy Pallin as the premier long distance event in NSW. The pace was hot from the start, with Big Benny Derrick putting his foot down and spreading the pack out quickly. After 5km of the "42km" event (actually about 38km) BBD and Cameron Morton had broken clear, with expected contenders Anthony Evans and Nick Almoukov unable to follow on the hills. During the rest of the first lap BBD threatened to drop Cameron several times, however Cameron's skis were fast on the downs and kept him in contact. BBD had waxed for warmer conditions, and on the second lap the snow became a bit wetter and the difference in skis was negligible. The two front runners then worked together, sharing drinks and chatting to each other. In the end BBD made a small break over the hill past the last drink station, and held on to win by 3.5 seconds. Anthony Evans skied a mostly solitary race for 3rd place, 3:15 behind, and Robert Curtis got away from Nick Almoukov to take 4th.

Camille Melvey battled with some of the 42km men for most of the "21km" women's event (apparently 24km), and won her 23rd Australian title in a time of 1:20:19. While second placed Belinda Phillips never really was in contact with Camille during the race, she finished only just over one minute behind. This gives Belinda a very good percentage for the national ranking. ACT junior Katie Calder almost caught up to Belinda early on in the race, but faded towards the end to finish 3:20 off the pace. Jane Scheer placed fourth.

Camille went on to ski the rest of the 42km event, and in unusual circumstances was awarded first place in both the 21km and 42km events.Technical Delegate Rae Moore searched for a ruling in the FIS handbook, however found nothing relevant. Camille had entered in both events seperately. The next woman across the line in the 42km event was Carla Ziilstra from the Netherlands, who competed at the last three Winter Olympics in speed skating. Third woman was Joan Chen.

The 21km men's event was won by NSWIS junior Matt O'Rourke, who was sitting in 4th place overall when he turned into the finish. Ben Sim skied another good race to take second 2:27 behind Matt, with Kieran Step 3:40 back in third place. Adam Forsdyke and Sally Cunningham were the winners in the 7.5km event.

August 18 - Australian 10/10km Classic Championships

Waxing played a major role in the only classic race in the Australian  Championships.  Everything seemed to be warming up very quickly under the hot sun, but there was still dry snow out the back of the course. Waxes varied from purple stick to universal and silver klisters. Some with stick wax ended up double poling most of the way, some with klister ended up running with 5cm of snow under their skis.

Men's 10km Classic
Ben Derrick was last off in the interval start and smoked the field. He overtook all the other skiers who finished in the top five. Not even Paul Murray was able to hang with BBD when he came past. Paul ended up in second place, 1:41 off the pace, with Matt O'Rourke putting in another decent classic race to take third place. While Paul and Matt were the only skiers within 10% of Ben, again the men's field proved to be very competitive further down. Only 20 seconds separated Kieran Step in 11th place from Leon Spiller in 5th place.

Women's 10km Classic
Katie Calder took a fall on the first tricky corner in this race, however was surprised to find she was up on Belinda Phillips after a couple of km. It eventuated after the race that Belinda Phillips had fallen on the same corner. Katie continued to stay in contact with Belinda until she blew up(figuratively) after about 5km. With about 3km Camille Melvey was well clear reported 2 minutes up, however Belinda Phillips really started to hit her straps (strange expression) and began to bring the gap back. At the finish the difference was only 58 seconds, still a comfortably win to Camille but a good result for Belinda. Katie dropped to 2 minutes 28 back in third place, with  Rhiannon Palmer really struggling with bad wax in fourth.

August 19 - Australian Sprint Championships

This was a very entertaining day of competition. The track used for the qualifying round was only about 650m, as anything longer would have involved a cross over which couldn't have been used with the interval start. All further rounds and finals used an extra loop, extending the race distance to about 1km.

Men's Sprint
As expected, the qualifying times were all very close. In the men's qualifying about 3 seconds separated the top dozen skiers. Paul Murray took the top spot, a fraction of a second ahead of dark horse Ronan Magaharan.

The round of 32 progressed without many incidents. NSW junior Ben Sim was knocked out by Robert Curtis, but otherwise the rest of the top 16 seeds progressed through. The action started to hot up in the quarter finals however. In the 2nd QF the 4th seed Peter Murphy faded over the longer course and was cleaned up by Nick Almoukov and Tim Retchford. The most controversy came in the 3rd QF. With Duane Butcher, Ronan Magaharan, and Leon Spiller all jostling for position around the last corner, it seemed that Leon's ski passed over the inside of the flags, cutting the corner. Ronan protested, and after much delberation (video evidence, expert witnesses, maybe some bribes) it was decided to include both Leon and Ronan in the semi final.

Semi final 1, Paul Murray lead the pack out, Nick Almoukov worked his way up past Finn Marsland on the second loop, all three bunched up on the final corner but Paul Murray and Nick Almoukov too fast in the straight. Semi final 2, it was pretty tight with 5 skiers but Leon eventually worked his way to the back and stayed there. Ben Derrick came from 4th to 2nd, and looked set to qualify comfortably, with Daniel Van der Ploeg out in front. Duane Butcher had other plans and came from nowhere in the straight to force BBD to lunge. If it was athletics, Duane's chest was first across the line, but xc skiing is taken from the foot and BBD had his lunge technique well practised.

In the final Paul Murray took the lead at the first corner, and for the first time managed to break away while the other three jostled for position. Daniel VDP settled into second, with Nick and BBD unable to make up ground through the middle this time. At the end Paul and Daniel were comfortably 1st and 2nd, while BBD's lunge technique was put the test again and given the nod over Nick.

Women's Sprint
The fastest qualifying time was posted by Esther Bottomley, ahead of Camille Melvey. There wasn't as much depth in the women's field - 12 starters meant that there were only 3 skiers in each quarter final.

One of the pre-race favourites, Katie Calder opted to pull out of the quarter finals to save herself for the 5km selection race the next day. This left only two skiers in her quarter final, making for an easy trip through Kate Spiller and Jacinta O'Neill. The action in the women's final picked up in the first semi, where Kate Spiller and Sally Cunningham fought it out for a finals berth. Another close finish saw Kate qualify, along with Esther Bottomley. In the other semi final Camille Melvey and Belinda Phillips qualified through, ahead of Rhiannon Palmer and Jane Scheer.

In the final Esther Bottomley got off to a fast start, however Camille Melvey's chances took a dive when she tripped herself up 30m down the first straight. Belinda Phillips followed Esther around the first corner, with Camille following Kate Spiller. Camille got into trouble again trying to squeeze past Kate on the uphill, and nearly fell off the track. Meanwhile, Esther and Belinda worked their well clear. Belinda threatened to close the gap on Esther on the second loop, but Esther carried a small lead into the final straight and in the end won comfortably. Camille turned in the straight just behind Kate, and managed to get past to take third place.

August 20 - Australian 5/15km Freestyle Championships

Women's 5km
A 2-3cm snow fall overnight and no extra grooming left the track in less than adequate condition. Instead of being a hard fast track for the first women, it was more of a slog through the fresh snow. With 1.5km to go, Camille Melvey held a slender lead of 12 seconds over both Belinda Phillips and Katie Calder. Camille proceded to put her foot down and extended the lead at the finish to 28 seconds over Belinda, with Katie losing even more time and ending up 41 seconds off the pace. Esther Bottomly was a further 30 seconds back in fourth place, and Sally Cunningham held pace with Camille down the last hill to pull herself into fifth place. Camille's tally of Australian titles now stands at 25.

Men's 15km
By the time the men got onto their second lap the track was well packed and getting faster and faster. With 5km down Big Benny Derrick held a slender lead of 20 seconds from Cameron Morton, with Daniel Van der Ploeg holding third place just ahead of Paul Muuray. Another lap down and BBD had extended his lead out to 40 seconds from Cameron, Daniel VDP matching Cam's pace in third place. It was difficult to get a split on early starter Robert Curtis however he was also looking quite strong.  After Paul Murray it was very close between Nick Almoukov, Ian Franzke, Ben Sim, and Matt O'Rourke. One more lap and Rob Curtis was first across the line and posted the time to beat. His time held until Daniel VDP lowered the best time by a minute. Daniel's time held until BBD ripped it apart by 1:43, and claimed his 7th Australian title. Cameron took second place 1:08 behind, Daniel third, Rob fourth, and Paul Murray got up for fifth. Matt O'Rourke gained time on those around him, moving up past Ben Sim and Ian Franzke, but ended up just 0.9 of a second behind Nick Almoukov, in 7th place.

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