Ben Sim finished up his racing season this weekend with two top five place in the Marbach Swiss Cup. The races were moved to Salwideli near Sorenberg because of snow conditions. The two 15km Swiss Cup events were Sim's 4th and 5th races in 8 days, and only two days after his 30km at the World U23 Championship. Alex Almoukov also competed in the same events, skiing up in the open 15km on the second day instead of the junior 10km event. On Saturday Sim finished 4th and Almoukov 13th in the 15km Freestyle. The race was won by Gordon Jewitt (CAN), who skied a cranking last 5km lap to win by 45 seconds ahead of Marco Muhlematter (SUI). It rained fairly steadily throughout the race, and the track was quite soft. Two other Canadians struggled in the conditions - Graham Nishikawa was 7th, and David Nighbor pulled out on the last lap. The next day Simbo started the 15km Classic well, catching Jewitt from 30 seconds behind on the first 3.75km lap. After 5km he was in third, 5 seconds behind Nighbor who was having a much better race. However Muhlematter was absolutely fliying, and caught and passed all the top seeds, including Sim from 1:30 behind. Sim was still in third until the last lap, but he was dropping back and in the end was taken by Nishikawa and Gaudenz Flury and finished 5th. Almoukov started slow but found some energy in the second half of the race to stay with a few of the top seeds as they caught him and he moved up to 10th overall. He picked up 146 FIS points for his troubles, his best points of the season. Sim flies directly back to Australia tomorrow, while Almoukov heads to Russia for another month of training.

Courtesy XC Files