Aussie Skimo athletes compete at the Olympic test event

Bormio saw the height of SkiMo racing this past weekend, with arguably deepest field ever seen at a World Cup. This presented the perfect opportunity for the Australian SkiMo team to test their metal against the best in the world and on the course designed for the Milan Cortina Olympics.

10 Australian Athletes competed in both the mixed relay and sprint events over the weekend, utilising a course with 70+ meters of elevation gain, jumps and berms. This provided the perfect opportunity for Australian SkiMo to make history with the largest number of athletes competing ever at a World Cup as well as numerous personal bests by the athletes.

Saturday 22 February saw the Australian Team compete in the Sprint, a gruelling test of speed, skill and aerobic capacity. The Team consisted of 5 male athletes (Phillip Bellingham, Brian Lichi, Daniel Trevena, Bastien Missud and Isaac Thompson) and 5 female athletes (Lara Hamilton, Kate Zander, Innika De Rosa, Ava McCann and Anna Trnka) who sought to take on the best in the world.

Throughout the event, a number of PB’s where attained with all the female athletes achieving a season best result, which is by far no mean feat considering the depth of field
that challenged them. On the men’s side, Phillip Bellingham achieved his best result on world cup, only 5 seconds off qualifying. Further, Isaac and Daniel managed to successfully compete in their first ever sprint event.

Sunday then was an even more gruelling day for the athletes. The mixed relay sees athletes compete on a course similar to the sprint, but this time they are required to conduct double the distance in qualifications. Again, a number of Aus SkiMo records were broken with both Lara and Phil achieving PB’s and going sub 50 percent of the field which resulted in them as a team being ranked in 29th position out of 63 starting teams. Unfortunately, due to the depth of field, they just missed out on progressing to the next round. Further the their performance, Ava achieved her best result in her nascent SkiMo career, managing to finish qualifying in 48th position.

Post the race on Sunday, Ava stated, “I was happy with my overall improvement trajectory from my first SkiMo race in December, especially my time of 4:05 in the second section of the course.”

Phil’s comments on the events were, “I was quite happy with the races this weekend. I felt good, transitioned well and I believe the courses in Bormio really suit me which is promising for next year. The competition seems to be getting stronger and more professional each race and I think the Australian team is matching that trajectory”

Post event, Lara’s comments were, “The atmosphere this weekend was awesome. We were especially stoked to have an Aussie tent and support by dedicated coaching staff. Vibes were great each morning with the team supporting each other whether it be helping out with gear or a quick fist bump pre-race.”

From here, athletes have either headed home to prepare for the upcoming World Championships in Morgins, Switzerland, continued preparations in Bormio or for Phil, have headed up to Trondheim to compete in the Nordic World Championships. The team remains positive and well postured to perform even better with more time on snow and perfecting any minor deficiencies identified from the past weekend.