Masters cross country skiers enjoy World Cup experience in Finland
Published Wed 21 Feb 2024
A small but passionate team of Australian cross country skiers have recently competed at the Masters World Cup in Finland.
The town of Vuokatti, home to Finland’s Olympic Training Centre for all nordic skiing disciplines, played home to the event from 9-16 February.
Prior to the competition the team held pre-event training in both Vuokatti and also at Dobbiaco/Toblach in the Sud Tirol region of Italy. Some competitors even completed the gruelling 42km Dobbiaco-Cortina Cross Country Race.
Temperatures under 20C in Vuokatti saw not only limited training opportunities, but competition was also delayed by a couple of days.
On Tuesday, the weather warmed just enough for the 13 competitors and four supporter to get their Masters World Cup campaign underway. Classic and freestyle 5km races were held, shortened from the usual 10km due to the cold.
In the classic races, Ben Barr finished 5th in M03 (40-44yo). Adrian Blake finished 29th and Robert Eddy 30th, both in M08 (65-69yo). Acacia Rose finished 10th in F08. In the freestyle races, Ben Barr finished 9th, and Zac Zaharias, Adrian Blake, David Simpson and Peter Lambert finished 37th, 39th, 40th and 41st in the M08(65-69yo). Wayne Pethybridge finished 22nd in M07 (60-64yo).
The following day saw the 4x5km relates with two legs in classic and two freestyle. Australia had a M08 (65-69yo) team which placed including beating the French on a couple of legs.
The third day of competition was set down for the Thursday by 30km classic races where Ben Barr came home with the highlight Australian result of the event, finishing fourth in the M03 (40-44yo) age group. Alan (Smiley) Hope came 17th in the M09 (70-74yo) age group, another impressive finish.
The 20km and 30km freestyle races were held on the final day of competition with our Australian team again delivering some eye-catching performances: Deb Purss 5th, Ben Barr 8th, Acacia Rose 9th, Chris Tattersall 24th, David Simpson 29th and Zac Zaharias 30th. We also had a few competitors who didn’t start or finish for various reasons, who became enthusiastic members of the cheer squad!
The key theme to Australian Masters Cross Country Skiers is to ski at amazing ski locations around the world, have a go, and have a great time.
We are already looking 12 months down the track to MWC2025, 10-15 March 2025 in Klosters, Switzerland. If you are interested in coming along, email peterllambert@icloud.com
