Huge week of Ski Cross and SBX action at Hotham

All generations of Australian Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross athletes have converged at Mt Hotham Alpine Resort this week for a full week of development, training and racing opportunities.

The week kicked off with the Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross FUTURES, with 72 athletes in attendance, focusing on high performance training and preparation techniques for heat racing.

After two days of training and development under the guidance of the NSWIS and OWIA Teams, the athletes had a chance to put their newly-honed skills to the test in the Youth, Groms and FIS Junior races on Wednesday.

Harriet Fuller won the Female Grom’s race, with Lucy Evans taking home the gold in the Youth Female race and Alexander Frost in the Men’s Youth event. See all results from the Groms & Youth SBX races HERE

Wednesday also saw the 2023 return of the FIS JNR SBX Series, powered by the Chumpy Pullin Foundation.

Australia’s best emerging snowboard cross racers went head-to-head on Mt Hotham, with Australia’s Mia Clift coming out on top in the women’s event, ahead of Abbey Wilson in silver and Maya Billingham in bronze.

Japan’s Daisuke Muraoka won gold in the men’s event, ahead of James Johnstone and WIlliam Martin.

Clift said it was a great way to return to racing before she starts to target the 2023/24 international season.

“I hadn’t raced in ages, it was my first week back which was awesome. The final was a battle between me and Abbey but I got in front and stuck it out in the end,” Clift said.

“I think it’s an awesome event to get all the juniors involved, get everyone to each mountain, and enjoying snowboard cross.

“We’re going to train here for a couple of more weeks which will be awesome, and then heading to Europe at the end of October.”

See all Hotham FIS JNR SBX results HERE.

The Ski Cross FIS Australia and New Zealand Continental Cups (ANC) started on Wednesday, with the Australian ski resort welcoming a number of international competitors.

World Cup athlete Doug Crawford won the first men’s event, ahead of Alfred Wenk in second and Emerson Facer in bronze.

Lin Nakanishi from Japan won the women’s first ski cross event, with Jesse Quinn second and Koko Kawashima in third.

Crawford returned to the podium in Thursday’s second ANC event, in the silver medal position, behind Liam Michael in first. Duncan Cowan rounded out the podium in third.

April Wynn won the women’s ski cross ANC 2 event, with Nakanishi and Kyra Wheatley joining her on the podium.

“They’ve been two pretty long days, so it's been a test of nutrition and how to manage fatigue,” Crawford said following the second day of racing.

“It’s all been a bit of fun getting back into it and racing against the boys. It’s nice to continue to have a name spot [for the upcoming World Cup season] and to have more boys going up to the World Cup level.”

Crawford said the domestic events are the perfect warm-up ahead of the upcoming international season.

“I am going to race alpine nationals for a bit of fun this year - I haven’t done that in about four years… and then we head over to Europe on 1st October and I am on snow from then.”

ANC Ski Cross Results will be available HERE

Scheduled to run from Thursday through to Saturday were three ANC Snowboard Cross events, with a number of national team members racing in Hotham, and Paralympic snowboarders Ben Tudhope and Sean Pollard joining the fun.

NSWIS athlete Amber Essex edged out World Cup gold medallist Josie Baff for the top spot on the podium in the first Women’s SBX ANC race, with Abbey Wilson in bronze.

Czech snowboarding Olympian Jan Kubičík won the men’s SBX final on Thursday, ahead of Australia's Declan Dent in second and Japan's Kenshin Kiyota in third.

After heavy snowfall overnight and during the day on Friday, the final ski cross event and second snowboard cross event was unfortunately canceled. One more SBX event is aiming to go ahead on Saturday, weather permitting.

See all ANC SBX Results HERE