Ben Sim has opened his 2006/2007 World Cup season with a personal best performance in the 15km Freestyle in Gallivare in Sweden yesterday. The 21 year old from Cooma finished 64th from the field of 97 starters, his first time into the top 2/3 of a World Cup field. Scoring FIS points of 58.34 (7.3 % behind the winner for the old school Australian skiers who compare everything in %) for the race, Sim is now fully qualified in World Cup for the rest of the season.

The 15km event was won by Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen, who was 23 seconds ahead of fellow Norwegian Tore Ruud Hofstad. Sim finished 2:24 behind Bjorndalen, right in the mix where every second counts - 10 seconds quicker would have jumped him up 5 places. He started the race conservatively, back in 83rd place at the 2.3km split, but moved up steadily for the next 10km before settling in the mid 60's amid pretty reasonable company - a few seconds ahead of Russian Ivan Babikov who broke through last season with a World Cup 4th place, and not far behind 2006 U23 World Championship bronze medalist Marcus Hellner of Sweden.

Sim and coach Nick Almoukov are now driving across to Ruka in Finland, the site of the next World Cup on November 25/26. More details from the Gallivare race are expected after the guys manage to make it onto the internet in Ruka.

The women's 10km Freestyle event in Gallivare was won by Katerina Neumannova from the Czech Republic, ahead of Kristina Smigun from Estonia.