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Cross Country Ski Championships August 15-21, Mt Hotham, Victoria |
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Cross Country Ski Championships August 15-21, Mt Hotham, Victoria |
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Race Summmaries
Men 15km Classic
The best weather for the week, no wind, bright sunshine, klister conditions all round. Ben Derrick started 30 seconds behind Paul Murray and 1 minute behind Finn Marsland. Early splits had Derrick and Murray a few seconds up, but that all changed on the tough second half of the 5km loop. At the 6km mark all three skier were together, with Paul driving the train. Ben took the lead from Paul, and then pulled slowly away, coming through to lap at 10km with about a 15-20 second gap. In the initial km of the last lap Ben seemed to struggle, and Paul and Finn closed the gap to maybe 10 seconds. Then in the last three kilometres Ben really put his foot down, and gained another 30 seconds before crossing the finish line. Paul dropped Finn by just a couple of seconds, the pair taking second and third place.
One of the more impressive performances of the day came from junior Andrew Mock, who claimed fourth place comfortably and posted a sub 10% time behind Ben Derrick. Nick Almoukov and Peter Tonkin tied for fifth place.
Women 10km Classic
Camille Melvey took no prisoners on the way to victory and her 22nd national title. Starting second last, Camille overtook everyone in front of her, and won the race by more than three minutes. It was a close battle for second place, with Belinda Phillips, Robyn Rodd, and Leanne Laajoki all putting their hands up to be counted at various stages. Leanne blew her chances with two costly falls on downhills. In the end it was Belinda who had the goods in the last few km, getting in ahead of Robyn Rodd by 16 seconds. Leanne placed fourth just 9 seconds further back. Katie Calder was the first junior in fifth place.
Men 10km Skate
No waxing difficulties, and Ben Derrick still gave everyone a caning. But not until after a bit of a scare from former Australian Junior Champion and Australian Biathlon Champion Cameron Morton. After a couple of years spending more time with his family and a stint at the 1998 Winter Olympics as biathlon coach, Cameron pulled his race skis out of the cupboard to see what he could do. In the first two kilometres in the men's 10km interval start Cameron was just 5 seconds down on Ben, and 15 seconds up on Finn Marsland, who started 30 seconds ahead. Then Ben put his foot down. One minute 13 seconds up after 5km, just over two minutes at the finish. The gap between Cameron and Finn see-sawed, with Cameron almost latching on behind but fading in the last few km to take second place by 14 seconds. Ian Franzke pulled out his race of the season to grab fourth place, with Paul Murray finishing strong to hold off David Hunt for fifth place. It was very close amongst the first junior skiers. 16 year old Daniel Van der Ploeg squeezed in ahead of Andrew Mock by 2.4 seconds, with James Rickard another 7.1 seconds behind.
Women's 5km Freestyle
Junior Katie Calder lead out the women's field in the 5km interval start, 30 seconds ahead of race favourite Camille Melvey. After 2km the field was pretty tight - Camille 15 seconds up on Katie, Swiss skier Brigitte Witschi only 4 seconds further back level with Belinda Phillips, and Robin Rodd, Amy Hunt, and Esther Bottomley all within a second or so another 12 seconds behind. The latter part of the loop was tougher and sorted the field out. Camille caught and passed Katie before the final downhill, the two crossing the line together and claiming the top two spots. Brigitte lost another 4 seconds to Katie and took third place comfortably ahead of Belinda, who placed fourth 1:10 behind Camille. Esther and Robin continued their neck and neck struggle, with Esther stealing fifth place by a tenth of a second. Christie Dowling skied the last loop well to get in for seventh ahead of Amy Hunt.
Men 30km Classic
Difficult waxing conditions plagued the first day of racing at Mt Hotham, particularly for the men, who started at 11am just as the snow really began to change. There were few skiers who really jagged the right wax, but one who did was pre-race favourite Ben Derrick. Having tested some klisters and sticks as cold as Rode Multigrade, standing on the start line he revealed what was on the bottom of his race skis: Straight Rode Yellow stick.
From the top of the first hill Ben broke away and never looked back, except to see the languishing faces of the skiers he lapped on the 5km course. Some skiers re-waxed during the race, one, Leon Spiller, balled up so badly in the first few kilometres he didn't complete a single lap. In the end Ben won in a time of 1:30:35.4, nearly nine and a half minutes ahead of second placed Scott McArt from the USA. Recent winner of the 1999 Paddy Pallin Nick Almoukov took third place. Finn Marsland battled for second place for a while, fell as low as fifth while re-waxing at the start of the 5th lap and struggled home for fourth place. The first junior over was Andrew Johnstone in 9th place.
Women 15km Classic
The women had a little more time to adjust to the rapidly warming conditions, but waxing still proved tricky. There was furious waxing going on in the last 15 minutes before the start, and Belinda Phillips made it to the start line with only seconds to spare.
Camille Melvey continued her season domination, breaking away early and slowly extending her lead over the three 5km laps. She won in a time of 56:09, the victory taking her tally of national titles to 20, just four behind the record 24 titles held by Anthony Evans. Belinda Phillips skied a solid race to take second place 3:13 behind Camille, with the gap back to Leanne Laajoki in third place see-sawing and ending up a bit over a minute. Young USA skier Jessica Smith finished fourth 6:58 behind, with Amy Hunt fifth and the first junior Christie Dowling in 6th place.
Top ranked junior Katie Calder suffered an asthma attack during the race and withdrew. The day after the race Katie is feeling well and hopes to be competitive later in the week.
XC is the official website of the Skiing Australia Cross Country Committee. It is produced with the assistance of the Australian Sports Commission, and the Kangaroo Hoppet. The editor can be contacted via hoppet@netc.net.au.