Sprint Events

The 2007 World Junior/U23 Championships started today, six weeks later than the scheduled dates. Of the nine athletes originally selected to the Australian Team for these competitions, only three are present in Tarvisio for the postponed events. The sole U23 competitor Ben Sim has returned to Europe directly from the World Championships in Japan, arriving in Italy yesterday morning. Alex Almoukov arrived in Tarvisio two days ago after a month of training in Russia, while Aimee Watson has been training in Tarvisio for 6 days with the USA team, having returned from Australia after a month off snow. Because of the lack of snow (still) in Tarvisio, the competitions are being held in a valley about 10km out of town, very close to the Slovenian border.

It was not a great start for the Australian Team today, however with the athletes that are here the classic sprint was always going to be the least favoured event. Aimee Watson finished 63rd out of 74 starters, while Alex Almoukov was 79th out of a starting field of 84. The course was relatively flat, with one gradual hill about 250m out of the start that perhaps half of the men's field double poled. Even the men who went with wax used it for only about 150-200m, depending on how far they double poled up the hill. Aimee was a little light on the grip side, but she had enough to make it up the hill okay. Only a couple of the junior women double poled the course, though if Chloe McConville were here she probably would have had a crack at it. Alex wasn't short of energy during his time-trial, he spent half the race doing his best to trip himself up he was trying so hard to go fast. He didn't quite succeed in either. Both Alex and Aimee will be looking to do a lot better on Wednesday in the individual freestyle events.

Tomorrow is Ben Sim's turn at the classic sprint in the U23 class, and unless a hill grows into the course overnight he will be double poling on skating skis. This is not normally Ben's strongest technique, and he is nursing a slight shoulder injury, but after seeing the junior men today it is likely that most of the U23 men will be double poling. And hey, its less work for the service team!

Courtesy XC Files