Paul and de Campo win 2023 Continental Cup

Katerina Paul from Taggerty and Seve de Campo from Canberra are overall winner of the 2023 FIS Australia - New Zealand Continental Cup for Cross Country Skiing. This is the fifth time Paul has won the FIS ANC series, while for de Campo this is his second win in a row.

This year the ANC series concluded with the Australian Open Championship at Falls Creek on August 18/19. Traditionally the series has also included the Kangaroo Hoppet and three days of racing at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. However, limited snow saw the cancellation of the 2023 Kangaroo Hoppet, and unfortunately the New Zealand continental cup events were dropped from the NZ Winter Games and haven't managed to re-start.

There was quite an international field for the last weekend of the ANC. The men's Freestyle Sprint final saw Christian Winker from Germany win ahead of Fabian Stocek from Czechia and top-placed Australian Jayden Spring. In the women's final Darcie Morton won ahead of Flavia Lindegger of Switzerland, with Kat Paul third. The race was not without controversy, with 4th placed finalist Damika Morton being subsequently disqualified for the use of fluorinated wax. Though Snow Australia introduced a no-fluor waxing policy in 2022, it is only now in 2023 that FIS has fully implemented the fluor ban into the international competition rules.

Men Sprint Finalists L-R - Jayden Spring, Fabian Stocek, Christian Winker, Noah Bradford / Women Sprint Podium L-R - Flavia Lindegger, Darcie Morton, Katerina Paul

The next day it was an international triple in the men's 10km Freestyle with Winker winning again ahead of Stocek and Lauro Braendli of Switzerland taking third. All three podium skiers double-poled the 10km, which had no steep hills due to the snow conditions. Seve de Campo was the first Australian in 5th place, having skied with grip wax. Flavia Lindegger also made it back-to-back wins in the women's 10km, also using grip wax, while Paul and Darcie Morton rounded out the podium having also double-poled.

Final ANC Standings

Paul spends most of the year in the northern hemisphere, where she races for the Team BSV IBEX on the Ski Classics marathon circuit, but has consistently made it back south for the Australian winter.
- I really appreciate taking part in the Australian Continental Cup races, as I think it’s important to make the most of the racing here and support the local ski-racing community. I also enjoy racing the shorter distances for a change! We've had quite a good crew out here for the Hoppet this year, it was disappointing not to get to race the one long distance event in the series but we've still had a great training block.

Writing from a spring training camp, de Campo was excited to have won the ANC for the second time.
- I’m grateful for the opportunities the FIS Continental Cups provide, bringing different nations and regions of the world together, and I’m pumped to fly the Australian flag. Thanks to all the volunteers and race organisers for putting on two great weekends of national championships racing. I was really looking forward to finishing with the Hoppet, it has been pretty illusory the last few years with covid and now adverse weather this year. Hopefully it will be back to full strength next year, I can’t wait.

AUS Championship Classic Sprint Podiums, Perisher, July 2023 (photos by Kaz Forman)
Women L-R - Fabiana Wieser, Katerina Paul, Emily Champion / Men L-R - Fedele de Campo, Seve de Campo, Noah Bradford