Australian 10-15km Championship

In an upset result Paul Murray won the 15km Freestyle Australian Championship event at Falls Creek yesterday August 12, just eight seconds ahead of Ben Sim. KT Calder won the 10km Freestyle ahead of Esther Bottomley. In contrast to the rainy conditions on Saturday the races were held in sunny weather, on initially rock hard tracks that softened during the men's race.

Starting as the back marker in the 30 second interval start Calder built up a 30 second lead in the first 3km over Chloe McConville and Bottomley. Australian 15km champion from two weeks ago Aimee Watson was a further 15 second back in fourth place. While Calder was extending her lead on the second 5km lap McConville and Bottomley continued neck and neck, with only one second separating the two as they headed out into Sun Valley the second time. Unfortunately McConville ran out of steam on the last couple of hills and starting losing time, just at the same time that Calder caught Bottomley from 1:30 behind. Calder went about 15m in front but Bottomley dug deep and held that gap for the last 1.5km to the finish to take a clear second place behind Calder. McConville dropped 40 seconds to Bottomley over the last 2km, just holding onto third place 12 second ahead of Watson.

Murray and Sim were within 10 seconds of each other the entire race, but it looked like Sim would have the upper hand as he went into the last 1.5km with a six second lead. However Murray had something left to give, and buried himself over the last kilometer to turn his deficit into an eight second victory. After the race he gave credit to his fast skis, which were noted also by spectators in the stadium as skiers were lapping. This was the first distance Australian Championship win for Murray, whose previous closest chance was back in 1998 when he finished second to current National Coach Finn Marsland by 15 seconds at Perisher Valley. Third place went to 17-year-old junior Alex Almoukov, who as a late entrant started at the front of the field and wasn't taken into full account by coaches giving time splits on the side of the track. Chris Darlington was up in third place for the first half of the race, but faded badly on the last lap to drop to 7th place. Ben Derrick finished strongly to account for Victorian juniors Neil van der Ploeg and Simon Flower and take 4th place.

FIS Australia New Zealand Cup

With four races down out of seven in the 2007 FIS Australia New Zealand Cup KT Calder has a clear lead over Japanese skier Sumiko Yokoyama. Paul Murray climbed up 100 points with his win in the Australian Sprint to be now just 5 points behind Tomio Kanamaru of Japan. The ANC continues next weekend with the Australian 5/10km Championship at Perisher Valley in NSW, and concludes with the Kangaroo Hoppet on the last Saturday of August at Falls Creek.

Full Continental Cup Standings

Australian Sprint Championship Podium- KT Calder, Esther Bottomley, and Chloe McConville