Quick reports from the Australian Team racing in New Zealand
Report 1 - Sunday August 23The NZ Winter Games opened today with the 15km Classic for men and the 10km Classic for women. Ben Sim come out cranking in the 15km and took 4th place behind the three race favourites; Devon Kershaw, Ivan Babikov and Alex Harvey from Canada, all of whom have been on a World Cup podium. Sim was 58 seconds behind Kershaw, scoring career best FIS points of 35, and 19 seconds ahead of 5th placed Stefan Kuhn. Australia - New Zealand Continental Cup leader Thomas Diezig of Switzerland wasn't feeling well and did not start.
Of the other Australian men Callum Watson was 20th, Leon Spiller 27th, and Ewan Watson 30th. Callum was just over four minutes off the pace with FIS points just over 100. Aimee Watson took 7th place in the 10km, around 3:40 behind the winner Sara Renner of Canada. There was a bit of chaos at the start due to some absent starters and Aimee missed her start, however the jury decided to use her actual race time because of the confusion. Brittany Webster of Canada was second and Chisa Obayashi of Japan third. KT Calder of New Zealand the ANC leader also was absent due to a recent cold.
New snow falling overnight made for an interesting morning for the wax technicans. The weather is supposed to be stable for the sprint tomorrow however another front is expected to come through on Tuesday, hopefully after the 5/10km races are over.
Report 2 - Monday August 24The Sprints were on today and only the Australian men took the start line. Ben Sim skied a good qualifying to finish in 12th place, 3.9 seconds behind Stefan Kuhn of Canada. Callum Watson was unlucky not to make the finals, finishing in 17th place 9.2 seconds off the pace, with Ewan Watson in 18th and Leon Spiller in 22nd. In his quarter-final Sim came up against the 4th and 5th ranked skiers Brent McMurtry and Julien Nury of Canada and was unable to pull something special out of the bag. He ended up 11th place overall, gaining a few points of Diezig of Switzerland who finished 14th. Nury went on to the A-final where he was outlunged by team-mate Drew Goldsack for first place, with Gaudenz Flury from Switz