NORAM Continental Cup, Sovereign Lake Canada

On November 27 Esther Bottomley made the podium in the NORAM Continental Cup Sprint in Sovereign Lake in Canada. The places in the qualifying and A-final results were the same, with Esther finishing 3rd behind the World Championship sprint bronze medallist, Sarah Renner, and her Canadian team-mate Chandra Crawford. All the events in Sovereign Lakes this weekend were a practice run for the World Cup events in two weeks time - same events, same styles, though the Pursuit was half the distance.
In the 15km Pursuit on Saturday November 26 Ben Derrick finished in 16th place, 2:45 behind the winner George Grey of Canada. This is what he had to say…

It dumped here for our race. I had a high start number #34 and got hammered at the start, but I once I got going I skied ok in the classic leg. Had some good hills but still couldn't get on the leaders. It was tough getting past with fresh snow in most of the tracks but I didn’t really have it in the tank anyway. Skating was really hard in really soft snow. One thing, I do have to chase up a pair of pursuit boots before the WC. Skating in my 4 year-old soft classic boots was pretty tough. So some good sections for me this weekend, but I have heaps of form to find before WC.

While it was a very good result for Esther in the Sprint - and Australia's first podium in a Continental Cup event outside of Australia - she will likely also need to find a little more time before the World Cup. In the qualifying she was 10 seconds behind Renner, which may not be good enough against a World Cup field - unless of course Renner wins the World Cup, which no doubt the Canadians will be cheering for on home snow. The most promising part is that Esther was strong all through the finals and kept her place from the qualifying.

Kuusamo World Cup
In the 15km Freestyle World Cup in Ruka in Finland Ben Sim finished 86th out of 89 starters. As for yesterday Ben felt okay and scored decent FIS points of about 84, but the World Cup field is just so strong. We should remember also that as a first year senior skier he is probably just about the youngest in the event. The next races for Ben will be the Ural Cup competitions coming up next weekend in Russia.

Sweden Cup, Gallivare
In Sweden, Paul Murray finished 12th in the opening Sweden Cup sprint event that was held in Gallivare. After qualifying 16th, 7 seconds behind the fastest qualifier, Bjorn Lind from Sweden, Paul finished third in his quarter-final, out-lunged by Lind and Anders Hogberg. The final was won by Tobias Fredriksson ahead of Peter Larsson and Lind. This was a good promising result for Paul and indicates that his form is going the right way before the next World Cup.

Paul Murray and Clare-Louise Brumley travel to Canada this week to join the others in Silver Star preparing for the Canadian World Cups. KT Calder has decided to remain in Europe and race most on Swiss Cup, looking to train well and focus on finding form for the World Cup competitions in January.



Courtesy XC Files