Casey Wright Top 50 in World Junior Sprint, Trnka 59th, Dewez 62nd

Casey Wright finished 48th in the skate sprint whilst Anna Trnka finished in 59th and Xanthea Dewez in 62 out of 71. Casey finished 16 second or 9% behind the winner Jonna Sundling from Sweden. This is impressive as two weeks previously Casey was 24 seconds behind Sundling at Swedish Junior Champs which shows the improvement Casey continues to make throughout this season. This is Casey’s second year racing at World Junior Championship and her result in the sprint was her highest finish yet.

Anna and Xanthea were satisfied with their races and are looking forward to the distances races.

Results, (winner, English speakers, Australians)

1. Jonna Sundling SWE 2:59.442. Mari Stoeen Gussiaas NOR 3:01.59
3. Nadine Faehndrich SUI 3:02.02

36. Stephanie Kirk USA, 3:12.77
38. Sarah Hale GBR 3:13.58
48. Casey Wright AUS 3:16.30
51. Marion Woods USA 3:17.74
52. Anne-Marie Comeau CAN 3:17.80
54. Sloan Storey USA 3:18.66
56. Nichole Bathe USA 3:19.76
59. Anna Trnka AUS 3:23.74
62. Xanthea Dewez 3:27.89

71 starters

 

 

 

AUSTRALIA INTO THE FINALS AT A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT

Phil Bellingham of Mount Beauty qualified 16th at the World U23 Championships in Val di Fiemme on the 29 January, qualifying in the top 30 meant that Phil progressed through to the knock out finals, a first for an Australian at this level. The event was a skate sprint and the format includes a individual qualifying time trial from which the top 30 placed athletes qualify for the final head to head rounds. Phil went into the race ranked 21st but skied an excellent time trial to qualify 16th out of 77. He started strong and looked very comfortable as he settled into third place up the first big hill, as he rounded over the top of the hill he tangled with another skier and unfortunately broke a pole and finished 6th in his heat. Although not the most preferable outcome to racing in the finals it was still an exciting experience and hopefully one of many finals experiences Phil will have in his skiing career.

Also in the race were Alasdair Tutt, Jackson Bursill and Nick Montgomery who were racing at their first U23 World Championships. Alasdair Tutt had the best race of the three to finish 27 seconds behind the winner. This was a great result for Alasdair who has been struggling to find good sprinting form this season. Jackson and Nick both were happy with their sprint result and are looking forward to the distances races that begin tomorrow.

Results

1. Serget Ustiugov RUS 3:00.50
2. Sondre Turvoll NOR 3:02.13
3. Roman Tarasov RUS 3:02.66

16. Phil Bellingham AUS 3:08.05
22: Andrew Young GBR 3:08.99
25. Erik Bjornson USA 3:08.96
29. Tyler Kornfield USA 3:10.35
33. Ben Saxton USA 3:10.88
39 Andy Shields CAN 3:13.05
48. Ben Lustgarten USA 3:15.82
50. Patrick Stewart-Jones CAN 3:15.94
53. Sebastien Townsend CAN3:16.98
64. Callum Smith GBR 3:19.85
74. Alasdair Tutt AUS 3:28.44
76. Jackson Bursill AUS 3:33.01
77. Nick Montgomery AUS 3:34.75

77 starters

Australian XC Team for Sochi 2014

Australian Team for 2014 World Junior / U23 Championship

Ski & Snowboard Australia is pleased to announce the Australian Team for the 2014 World Junior / U23 Championship for Cross Country Skiing. Seven athletes will represent Australia at the competitions in Val di Fiemme in Italy, which begin on January 29.

Junior Team:

• Anna Trnka (Mt Beauty, Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club)
• Casey Wright (Launching Place, Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club)
• Xanthea Dewez (Wangaratta, Wangaratta Ski Club)

U23 Team:

• Phillip Bellingham (Mt Beauty, Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club)
• Nick Montgomery (Armadale, Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club)
• Jackson Bursill (Canberra, NSW Ski Team)
• Alasdair Tutt (Canberra, Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club)

Five blog posts by Callum Watson

A week ago Callum Watson was sick and he found time to update his blog for the first time since the start of December. Rather that re-blog them one by one, take your pick from the linked list below:

• #1 – Davos World Cup
• #2 – World University Games
• #3 – Campra Swiss Cup
• #4 – Scandinavian Cup
• #5 – Chamonix Opa Cup

In case there’s an extended delay until the next blog post, Callum is healthy again and currently training in Davos.

Offerdals Race Report etc.

The junirs/u23 team had one last hit out before departing Sweden for Middle Europe and World Championships. The race was a bit of fun in the woods around 40km north of Ostersund. In saying that a good field of locals turned out which provided some good racing for the team. All the Australian athletes looked fresh and snappy and like they are coming into good form leading into Val di Fiemme.

Full results can be found at

www3.idrottonline.se/OfferdalsSK-Skidor/Varaarrangemang/Offerdalspropagandan/Resultat/2014/

World Cup Preview – Bellingham ranked 37th on start list

Phil Bellingham of Mount Beauty will be Australia’s only representative in the World Cup in Szklarska Poreba, Poland. Phil goes into the race ranked 37th and will be aiming to be the first Australian to qualify for the next round. To do this Phil has to finish in the top 30.

The season Phil has raced consistently well on World Cup. He also became the second Australian to start the Tour de Ski and is expected to be named on to the Australian Olympic Team early next week.

You can follow Phil’s results on the FIS website. Qualifying begins at 12:40pm Poland/middle Europe/Sweden time, 10:40pm Melbourne/Sydney time, 7:40pm Perth time, 3:40am in the east coast of America.

Sweden Redeems Itself

Half an Adventure

So I know my last post was pretty negative, and it may have sounded like I was having a whinge about being in everyone’s favourite country. Truth is, Ostersund without snow in the middle of winter is kind of depressing, as much of the beauty of the town at this time is bound up in the snow itself, rather than the physical landscape. More on that later. But first:

Training

I’m almost at the end of a one month training block, which means I haven’t had much racing over here, except a fun race which is coming up tomorrow morning in a nearby town. My training has been pretty gruelling, with lots of gym sessions, distance skis of up to 4.5 hours, where I cover well over 45km, and interval sessions that make me want to vomit at times. Examples of interval sessions are:

30 seconds of hard skiing, 30…

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Europe Finale…

Paul Kovacs. Elite Cross-Country Skier

Quite an epic week so this blog is a bit of a big one, so if you’ve got time to burn read on and enjoy..

We left Davos with amazing sun and great snow and headed southwest to Chamonix, France. I was extremely excited head to France. Firstly I’ve never been there before. Secondly Chamonix is at the base of Mont Blanc and one of my non-skiing dreams is to climb to the top of it. After reading a bunch of climbing books as a kid I’ve had a big urge to climb big mountains for a long time. Any way enough of mountain speculation, I was there to race and I was keen! In Davos I thought I’d found a bit of that fire that I seemed to have all of last year and I was really hoping to kindle something for the three races, a skate sprint, a…

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Kat Paul Racing Report from the USA

Australia’s newest junior team member Katerina Paul has been spending her summer training in Sun Valley Idaho. Last week Kat traveled with her club to compete at the USSA Senior National Championships and World Junior Try Outs in Soldier Hollow, Utah.