Australian Open / Junior Championship and FIS Australian New Zealand Cup
Update August 25
The 2008 Australian Open and Junior Championships for Cross Country Skiing concluded this weekend August 23-24 at Falls Creek with interval start classic and freestyle races. The open 5km events for women and open 10km events for men were also part of the 2008 FIS Australia — New Zealand Cup (ANC), which concludes next weekend with the Kangaroo Hoppet 42km event at Falls Creek.
Evelyn Dong (USA) from the XC Oregon Ski Team made a clean sweep for the weekend, winning the 5km Freestyle on Saturday by 13.3 seconds and the 5km Classic on Sunday by 6.4 seconds, on both occasions ahead of Aimee Watson (AUS). Esther Bottomley (AUS) was third in the Freestyle and Chloe McConville (AUS) third in the Classic. Bottomley now has an unbeatable lead in the ANC, 135 points clear from Watson. With her two victories Dong moves up into equal third place together with Milaine Theriault (CAN).
 winning the 10km Freestyle on and Viktor Novotny (CZE) winning the 10km Classic. Ben Sim (AUS) was leading both races after the first 5km lap, however was unable to hold off the international competition. Sim ended up third in the 10km Freestyle, 4.7 seconds behind second placed Novotny, and then was pipped by Novotny the next day by just 2.0 seconds in the 10km Classic. Fourth place on both days went to Geoffroy Pais (FRA), who still retains the overall lead in the ANC ahead of Sim.</p><p><center><img decoding=)
In the Australian Junior Championship it was an all-Australian affair, with Callum Watson and Georgia Merritt claiming the overall junior male and female titles.
 and Novotny (1st in 2008 Dolomitenlauf) have proven their long distance credentials earlier this year and will be hard to topple.</p><p>2008 FIS ANC Women Standing After 6 of 7 Events</p><p>1 Bottomley Esther AUS 375<br />
2 Watson Aimee AUS 240<br />
=3 Theriault Milaine CAN 200<br />
=3 Dong Evelyn USA 200<br />
5 Ishigaki Sumiko JPN 185<br />
6 Gruber Bettina SUI 150</p><p>2008 FIS ANC Men Standing After 6 of 7 Events</p></div><div class=)
1 Pais Geoffroy FRA 360
2 Sim Ben AUS 315
3 Mock Andrew AUS 221
4 Kozu Masaaki JPN 200
5 Honda Shohei JPN 195
6 Kanamaru Tomio JPN 185
Results and news from all competitions will be available at: http://www.hoppet.com.au/xc
FIS Australian New Zealand Cup — Update August 20
Competition in the 2008 FIS Australia — New Zealand Cup for cross country skiing has been hot over the last two weeks, with athletes from Canada, Japan, Switzerland and France taking on the locals from Australia and New Zealand. After four events Esther Bottomley (AUS) and Geoffroy Pais (FRA) lead the series, with three events remaining at Falls Creek in Australia.
Second to Bottomley in the women’s standings is Milaine Theriault (CAN), who won both distance events at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. Theriault won the 10km Classic ahead of Katherine Calder (NZE) and the 5km Freestyle ahead of Sumiko Ishigaki (JPN). Bottomley finished back in fifth and sixth in the distance events, however leads the series with a first and second place from the two sprint events. Bettina Gruber (SUI) won the Snow Farm Sprint Freestyle ahead of Bottomley and her Swiss team-mate Sandra Gredig (SUI).
The four men’s events have had four winners. Pais won the opening Sprint Freestyle at Perisher Valley in Australia, Tomio Kanamaru (JPN) won the Snow Farm 15km Classic, Shohei Honda (JPN) won the Snow Farm Sprint Freestyle, and Robin McKeever (CAN) won the Snow Farm 10km Freestyle. The men’s competitions were extremely tight in New Zealand, as just 13 second separated the top five athletes in the Mass Start 15km, and McKeever won the 10km but just 0.1 of a second ahead of a fast finishing Masaaki Kozu (JPN).
Next weekend the ANC continues at Falls Creek with the Australian Championship events on August 23 and 24. Though the Japanese and Canadian athletes are not coming to contest these events the international contingent will still be strong, with skiers from Czech, Slovenia, and the USA joining Pais from France. The final ANC event is the Kangaroo Hoppet 42km Freestyle on August 30, where two of the top contenders will be 2008 American Birkebeiner winner Evelyn Dong (USA), and 2008 Dolomitenlauf winner Victor Novotny (CZE).
