The Australian racing season is in full swing, with races on every weekend in NSW and Victoria. With several of Australia's World Cup athletes taking a step back from racing this winter for various reasons some of the younger athletes are taking the opportunity to show their credentials. The biggest improver has been 18-year-old Neil van der Ploeg from Mt Beauty, who won the Victorian Sprint Championships, and dead-heated with his older brother Mark for second place in the Australian Sprint Championships behind French skier Geoffroy Pais. NSW Institute of Sport junior Aimee Watson has also been in good form, finishing second in both the Australian 15km and 10km Championship events behind Torino Winter Olympian Esther Bottomley.

Victorian junior Chloe McConville has also shown promising form in the shorter events, finishing second to Bottomley in the Australian Sprint Championships. All these junior athletes have their sights on the 2007 World Junior Championships in Tarvisio in Italy.

In the men's distance events 21-year-old Ben Sim has dominated every event so far, winning the Australian 30km and 15km Championships the last two weekends ahead of his NSW Institute of Sport team-mate Chris Darlington.

Sim heads across the Tasman this week to contest the New Zealand legs of the Australia-New Zealand Continental Cup series. The Australian Championships conclude in two weeks with the final 5/10km events and Australian Junior Championships at Falls Creek on August 19/20. The final event in the ANZ Continental Cup is the Kangaroo Hoppet at Falls Creek on August 26.