St Ulrich Continental Cup, Austria, January 7-8

Ben Derrick had two good hard races this weekend on Continental Cup in Austria, topping off his final preparation for the World Cup in Italy next weekend. BD finished 38th and 37th respectively in the 10km Classic and 15km Freestyle events, with FIS points of around 102 and 98. The places were nothing so special to write home about - however BD's performances were solid and show he is close to his best middle-distance (read 10-15km) skiing form in Europe for a couple of years. He was hoping for a better result in the mass start freestyle event, however got caught up in a bottle-neck in the start and had only just worked his way up to the back of the lead pack when it started to break up. He picked up more places as the race went on, however bridging the gaps to the next groups proved to be too much work. A good start will be one of the key factors for a good result in Val di Fiemme - with his high FIS points BD will be starting at the back of the field again next weekend

Esther Bottomley raced her first FIS distance race in Europe for several years, and doesn't plan to do another one again soon. Esther finished 29th out of 34 starters in the 10km Freestyle mass start, skiing most of the race solo after losing contact with the pack in the first 2-3km.

Asarna Sweden Cup, January 6-7

Paul Murray posted some consistent results on Friday-Saturday in the Swedish Cup competitions in Asarna. Paul was 38th in the 15km Classic on January 6, just over 4 minutes (or 10%) behind the winner Johan Olsson - who was 58 seconds ahead of second place! The other Australians in the event - NSWIS/Continental Cup Team member Chris Darlington, and Wangaratta Ski Club's Leon Spiller - found it tough in their first race in Europe this season, 7:00 and 9:30 back from the winner respectively. In the Sprint the next day Paul qualified 13th then had a good 1/4 final to make to the semis. Then was knocked out and ended up ranked 8th as there was no B-Final. Darlo and Leon were well off the pace again, in 47th and 50th place.

Next weekend the focus will all be on the World Cup 30km/15km events in Val di Fiemme, the only qualifying events this season for the Olympic 50km/30km mass start freestyle events. BD will be the only Australian in the 30km event, as our other male distance World Cup skier Ben Sim is training through to the Oberstdorf World Cup the following weekend. Clare-Louise Brumley and KT Calder will compete in the 15km event. KT Calder is re-joining the World Cup Team after six weeks of training and racing in Switzerland. Though KT's training was interrupted a couple of times in this period by illness, in a Swiss Cup in Campra two weeks ago she showed some signs of a return to last season's form. For Clare-Louise it will be her first race since her Olympic qualifying performance in Canada four weeks ago.