Images from 2014 Australian Junior Classic Sprint

A selection of images from the Australian Junior Championship Classic Sprint at Perisher last Saturday July 26.

Images from the 2014 Victorian Junior Classic races

More images from the Victorian Junior Championship classic races at Falls Creek on July 20.

Skike Australia Victorian Ski Chase – Update

On Sunday 27^th July the third of the Skike Australia Victorian Ski Chase events, the Bullfight Charge, took place.  Many thanks to the Mt. Bullfight Ski Club and the Lake Mountain Alpine Resort for putting on another fun and fast event.  The hilly Lake Mountain trails give the event a unique flavour. 

The snow cover was excellent and the weather was of course perfect.  Sunny with a dry wind that kept the snow fast and crisp for almost the entire race.  The race started at Helicopter flat and took in Woollybutt and Muster trails via Echo flat.  The early hills on Woollybutt were certainly a challenge, but once they were done everything else was easy in comparison.

The interim results are here: SkiChaseResultsWomenEvent3 SkiChaseResultsMenEvent3

These results include only those people who had registered by Sunday 27^th of July.  More names will be added to the results as additional people register.

In the women’s competition Zoe Beanland and Casey Wright leapt into 2^nd and 4^th place respectively, after some great results in the Charge. Anna Trnka still holds on to First place, but only just. With additional registrations expected from the many Ivanhoe Girls who competed, we might see some more movement in the top ten.  In the Men’s competition there has been no change in the top four except Kevin Tory is now 122 points clear being the only skier to compete in all three events.  Len Budge and Peter Holmes now move into the top ten after making up for missing the first event.  There are still fewer than 12 people aged 25 and under in each of the male and female competitions, which means all who have competed in one or more event are still in the running for the cash prizes.  Don’t be complacent though, we’re expecting a rush of registrations.

The next event is the Pub to Pub (also known as the Hotham to Dinner Plain) this Saturday (2 August).  Race start 11am, 12 km (Freestyle technique).   This is another great event so don’t miss it.

Any questions? Try the information at http://www.skike.com.au/victorian-ski-chase.html or send an enquiry to victorianskichase@gmail.com. 

To register sign up here http://tinyurl.com/victorianskichase

Australian Junior Championship Results

The 2014 Australian Junior Championships for Cross Country Skiing was held last weekend July 26-27 at Perisher in NSW. This was the first time this event was held separately to the Australian Open Championship since 2004, and was deemed a great success by athletes an organisers alike. Nearly 100 athletes between the ages of 9 and 19 took part in the competitions over the weekend, which featured a Classic Sprint, Freestyle Distance races, and the trial of a new event, the “XC Cross”.

The Open Junior Champions over the weekend were Katerina Paul from Taggerty (Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club) and Damon Morton from Marlo (NSW XC Ski Team), who cleaned up in both the Sprint and Distance championship events. Full results for all championship categories are linked below in PDF format. UPDATED!

• 2014_AUS_Junior_ Sprint_Qualification Results
• 2014_AUS_Junior_ Sprint_Finals Results
• 2014_AUS_Junior_Distance Results UPDATED!

The non-championship XC Cross event was well received by athletes and spectators alike. The course featured a series of banked corners, table-tops, rollers and jumps, and finished with a skating uphill section. Athletes first skied a time trial then competed in heats of three. A number of athletes launched themselves off the jumps and the head to head racing action was very spectacular.

Damon Morton leading Hamish Roberts, Hugh Pollard and Grigorii Kazantcev in the U20 Sprint A-final

 

 

Images from the 2014 Victorian Junior Sprint

A selection of images from the Victorian Junior Championship Sprint at Falls Creek last weekend…

2014 Victorian Junior Championship Results

The 2014 Victorian Junior Championships were held last weekend July 19-20 at Falls Creek, organised by the Wangaratta Ski Club. Perfect racing conditions greeted the competitors throughout the weekend, which featured Freestyle Sprints on the Saturday and Classic Distance races on the Sunday. In the Open Junior categories Kat Paul from Taggerty and Hamish Roberts from Canberra won on both days. Full results from the Sprint Qualification Time Trial and the Distance races are linked below in PDF format:

• 2014 Victorian Junior Sprint Qualification
• 2014 Victorian Junior Classic Distance

U20 Sprint A-Finalists – Catherine Lobbe, Kat Paul (winner), Stella Ajani, Ella Jackson

U20 winner Hamish Roberts leads Finlay Clarke up a short climb in the Sprint.

Images from HGA Races

A small slideshow of images from the Snow Trek & Travel High Plains Tour and YMCA Howmans Gap Victorian Interclub Relays organised by the Howmans Gap Allstars last weekend.

 

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2014 Australian Competition Rules

The SSA Cross Country Committee (SAXC) has recently updated the Australian Competition Rules for 2014. These rules have two components; General Rules, which relate to the organisation of competitions in Australia; and Competition Rules which are based on the FIS International Competition Rules (ICR) with some minor alteration for different levels of competition. The SAXC Competitions Rules are included here in PDF format, the ICR are available via the FIS website.

• Australian Competition Rules 2014 – Final June2014
• FIS Cross Country Rules Page

Any questions regarding the Australian Competition Rules should be directed to Finn Marsland, SSA Cross Country Skiing High Performance Manager, or to Andrew Walker, SAXC Technical Sub-Committee Chair.

2015 World Championship Selection Policy

The SSA Cross Country Committee (SAXC) has recently updated the Selection Policy for the major international events of 2015. This includes the World Championship in Falun, the Junior / U23 World Championship in Almaty, and the World University Winter Games in Strbske Pleso. A summary of the selection standards and rationale behind changes to the selection policy are included below. The full policy wording is available in this linked document:

• World Championships Selection Policy July 2014

Selection Policy Summary

2015 World Championship, Falun, Sweden

Women:

• A standard:          1 result < 120 FIS Points
• B Standard:         1 result < 140 FIS Points, OR 2 results < 160 FIS Points

Men:

• A standard:          1 result < 90 FIS Points
• B Standard:         1 result < 120 FIS Points, OR 2 results < 140 FIS Points

These results need to be achieved within 365 days of the start of the championship.

The major change in the World Championship criteria is due to the new qualification standard put in place by FIS. Any athletes who do not achieve the 120 points for women and 90 points for men standard (B qualified athletes) are required to compete in the 5km and 10km qualification race on the opening day of the championship in order to compete in any of the other Distance events. B qualified athletes will be permitted to start the Sprint events if starts haven’t been filled by A qualified athletes. The details for determining which qualified athletes are selected to start in each event will be published following the Australian winter.

Howmans Gap Allstars Race Results July 12/13

The illustrious Howmans Gap Allstars conducted their annual weekend of races at Falls Creek last weekend – the Snow Trek and Travel High Plains Tour on Saturday July 12 and the YMCA Howmans Gap Victorian Interclub Relays on Sunday July 13. In brief, Paul Kovacs won the High Plains Tour 10km Freestyle by just 6 seconds after a close battle with Phillip Bellingham. Anna Trnka was the first female  in the 10km. Anthony Evans was the first male in the 5km Freestyle, just ahead of the first female Ash Kildea. In the 2.5km Freestyle Acacia Keeble was the first across the line, with Ben Neale the first male.

In the Interclub Relays it was a bit of a Birkebeiner whitewash in most classes, with Wangaratta and HGA picking up an age group title here and there.

The overall results are linked below, the age class results are also available on the HGA website.

• 2014 High Plains Tour Overall
• 2014 Victorian Interclub Relays Overall

Additional reports on the race conditions are contained in this Victorian Ski Chase update.