Results

Courtesy www.ausxc.com

The 2016 Australian Junior Championships were held at Perisher on July 30/31. Over 90 competitors took part in the events over the weekend, with the best conditions for Saturday’s Freestyle Sprint. The Otto Pinkas trophies for the overall Australian champions in the Open Junior class were awarded to Stella Ajani and Seve de Campo, both from Melbourne. The races were organised by NSWXC and ACTXC on behalf of Ski & Snowboard Australia.

Full results for all age classes on both days of competition are posted here in PDF format:

• Freestyle Sprint Qualification Results: 2016 AUS Junior Sprint TT Results
• Freestyle Sprint Final Results: 2016 AUS Junior Sprint Final Results
• Classic Distance Results: 2016 AUS Junior Distance Results

An international guest, Markus Wirstad from Norway, won the Open Junior men’s Freestyle Sprint A-final ahead of de Campo and Jindabyne local Liam Burton, with Matt Bull from Sydney taking the medal for the third Australian. However, in the 7.5km Classic on Sunday the Australian skiers  de Campo and Burton were too strong, relegating Wirstad down to third place. William Middlemiss from Melbourne claimed third Australian sport, and also the U18 title. In the U16 category Bentley Walker-Broose won both the Sprint and the 5km events. The U14 class was dominated by Hugo Hinkfuss from Sydney, with the U12 class split between Thomas Inglis from Sydney winning the Sprint and Callum Smith from Bright winning the 1.2km Classic.

The fastest women’s qualifying time in the Sprint was posted by Lilly Boland from Ulladulla, but close competition in the head-to-head rounds saw Boland knocked out of the semi-finals. Ajani won the A-final ahead of a photo finish between Ella Jackson from Melbourne and Darcie Morton from Marlo. The podium in the Open Junior 5km Classic was the same on the Sunday, this time with Morton edging out Boland for third place (and first in the U18 category) by just 0.2 of a second. In the U16 class Emily Champion from Sydney won the Sprint and Maysen Duffy from Falls Creek won the 3.5km. Lily Murnane from Tahoe in the USA and Heli Laajoki from Canberra cleaned up on both days in the U14 and U12 events respectively.

There was also a lot of fun on the Saturday afternoon with the Cross Country Cross event held over approximately 300m, featuring head-to-head racing around cones, over jumps, under hoops, through gates, and also a backwards skiing section. The winners in each category were Heli Laajoki (WU12), Harri Silvester (MU12), Lara Essex (WU14), Hugo Hinckfuss (MU14), Lara Agnew (WU16) and Finn Ryan (MU16).

Next weekend racing continues at Perisher with the Open Australian Championship and the start of NSW Cross Country Week. See Perisher XC for full race details.