Cross Country Skiers set for important weekend in Dresden

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING: The final stretch into the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics has arrived for the Australian Cross Country Team, who will take to the World Cup course in Dresden this weekend.

Phil Bellingham, Callum Watson, Jessica Yeaton and Barbara Jezersek will kick off their weekend with Individual Sprint Free events on Saturday in the German snow city.

The group will then get the chance to compete in Team Sprint Free Men's and Women's events on Sunday, which is the only Team Sprint on the circuit this season before the event in Pyeongchang.

"I am really looking forward to the World Cups in Dresden," Yeaton said.

"Skate sprinting is my favorite event and I am particularly excited to race with Barbara, as I think we have a really good chance to have a good result in the team event.

"As the Olympics continue to approach, I am definitely starting to get more and more excited. It has always felt so far off, and now it suddenly seems like its actually just around the corner."

While the festive season brought some reprieve from World Cup competition Jezersek, Yeaton and Bellingham all found events in Europe to ensure they were keeping up their momentum.

Jezersek finished second in a 7.5km Classic Austrian Cup event in Villach, just four seconds off the winner, while Yeaton finished fourth in the 20km Classic US Championship in Alaska.

Bellingham was the busiest of the bunch finishing 56th in Sprint qualification at the Lenzerheide World Cup before claiming 48th and 70th in Sprint and Individual Alpen Cup events in Campra.

"Training has been good, with a lot of snow in France making for some quality sessions," Bellingham said.

"With the Olympics just around the corner, everything is quite exciting and I'm really starting to look forward to it.

"I really enjoy this period now where the hard training backs off and we get to enjoy just trying to race fast."

The events take place in the evening on Saturday and Sunday AEDT.

Other Australian XC Shadow Team members are racing in different events around the world. Aimee Watson is currently competing in the Far East Cup in PyeongChang, while on the weekend Kat Paul and Paul Kovacs will be with the Australian Junior Team at the Swiss Championships in Steg, and Casey Wright is racing on the US University circuit in Montana.

Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au