Cross country season to heat up in Europe

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING: Australia’s leading cross country skiers hit the snow around Europe this weekend as the 2017/18 season begins to heat up.

With the PyeongChang 2018 Games fast approaching, the majority of the team will line up against some strong competition at the Swiss Championships in Goms.

Sochi 2014 Olympians Phil Bellingham and Callum Watson will be joined by fellow PyeongChang hopefuls Paul Kovacs, Jessica Yeaton, Kat Paul as well as Mark Pollock and Youth Olympic Games athlete Liam Burton in the Swiss mountain town.

LIVE RESULTS - Follow the results from Swiss Championships, Goms, click here. 

Baraba Jezersek will be looking to back up a strong start to her season when she races in the La Sgambeda in Livigno, Italy, which is the opening marathon race of the Ski Classics series, while Sochi 2014 Olympian Aimee Watson will line up in Santa Caterina in Italy.

The team has just finished a camp in Davos, Switzerland, and coach Valerio Leccardi is confident the team has done all they can to prepare for the start of the season.

“The last two weeks the focus was on acclimatising to the altitude of 1500m and the time zone,” Leccardi said.

“We also started to turn up the intensity in order for the athletes to get ready for the races.

“I’m happy with how everyone is progressing. The athletes are motivated and looking forward to the first race and I can see some good progress in their technique and form.”

Leccardi and the athletes are now keen to get underway with just 70 days to go until the PyeongChang 2018 Games are opened in South Korea.

“The competition in Goms will be a really good standard with some Swiss World Cup skiers.

“It will give our athletes a good chance to race hard and give them an indication of how their form is leading into the first World Cup event in Davos the following week.”

Fellow PyeongChang 2018 hopeful Casey Wright will remain in Alaska where she will continue to train with the UAA university team.

Australia had four athletes line up in cross country skiing at the Sochi 2014 Games and are hoping to qualify five athletes PyeongChang. 

Copy: Matt Bartolo, olympics.com.au

EUROSPORT ACTION 

Saturday December 2
21:15 - Cross-country skiing - World Cup - Men & Women - Sprint Classic: from Lillehammer, Norway - Live
Sunday December 3
20:00 - Cross-country skiing - World Cup - Women's Skiathlon - Lillehammer, Norway - Live
21:30 - Cross-country skiing - World Cup - Men's Skiathlon - Lillehammer, Norway - Live