Freestyle Events

It was a combination of young and old at the top of the men's 10km freestyle at the Australian Championship on Saturday August 18, with the ages of the top six places reading 22, 38, 17, 34, 30, 25. Ben Sim topped the result list with his second distance title of the season, with Winter Olympian ('92, '94, and '98) Anthony Evans taking second place ahead of 17-year-old Alex Almoukov. Four-time Kangaroo Hoppet winner Ben Derrick was jibbed out of the podium by Almoukov for the second race in a row, taking 4th place just 3 seconds back, while last week's 15km champion Paul Murray managed just 5th place a nose ahead of Chris Darlington. The track at Perisher Valley was fast, initially firm but then softening under the sun.

In the women's 5km freestyle KT Calder with the second place battle this time between Aimee Watson and Esther Bottomley. Watson managed to build up a lead of 20 seconds over Bottomley in the first half of the race, but Bottomley pulled it back in the closing kilometre to be just 7 seconds behind at the finish. Chloe McConville was up in contention for the podium early on but blew up before the top of the course and dropped back to 5th place behind Camille Melvey. In the younger junior classes of the women's 5km d'Arcy Baxter had a good day to win the U18 Australian title ahead of Juliette Booth, while Aislinn Kildea won the U16 title.

Phillip Bellingham won the U16 junior men's 5km freestyle ahead of Robert Jones, Alasdair Tutt won the U14 2.5km freestyle, and Jack Hayson won the U12. Anna Trnka won the U14 girls' 2.5km just 1.6 seconds ahead of Siobhan Jones and 7.8 seconds ahead of Lucy Glanville, and Tilley Pascoe won the U12 girls' 2.5km.

Full results

Classic Events

Paul Murray came out with his race of the season to win the men's 10km classic at the Australian Championship at Perisher Valley today. He stormed out of the start and already after 3.5km had a 25 second lead over 10km freestyle winner Ben Sim. On the second lap Murray's victory was already a foregone conclusion and there was more interest in the rest of the podium. Alex Almoukov had the earliest start number of the top five and was posting the leading times, only to be knocked down consecutively by Chris Darlington, Neil van der Ploeg, and Sim. Darlington worked hard on the second lap and was within 10 seconds of Sim, but Sim pulled everything out over the top of the course to secure second place, 1:25 behind Murray. Van der Ploeg had fast skis, re-taking Sim on the long downhill after being overtaken and dropped, and took fourth place behind Darlington and ahead of Almoukov.

KT Calder made it back to back wins in the 5km classic, but had a scare early on the race as Watson was within 5 seconds at the half-way mark. Calder made good time on Watson over the top of the course and on the last downhill to win by 31 seconds. Bottomley also regained time on Watson in the last kilometre, skiing up to third place after lagging behind juniors Chloe McConville and Juliette Booth mid-race. McConville had a setback before the start of the race when she collided heavily with another skier during her warm-up and banged her head. McConville and Booth were neck and neck most of the race but McConville skied the last downhill’s faster to take fourth place 10 seconds ahead of Booth.

In the younger classes Aislinn Kildea and Phillip Bellingham won the U16 5km events once again, Alasdair Tutt won the U14 boys' 2.5km classic, Lucy Glanville won the U14 girls 2.5km after another close race with Siobhan Jones and Anna Trnka, Tilly Pascoe won the U12 girls' 2.5km, and Lachlan Porter won the U12 boys' 2.5km.

Full results