Personal bests and exciting debuts mark AUS XC World Cup start in Norway

The Australian Cross Country team rounded up their first FIS World Cup races of the season last Sunday, with back-to-back weekends of competition in Norway producing some great results, two World Cup debuts and a few personal bests.

After some promising performances in Norwegian Cup events, the AUS XC team put in a strong effort against a very competitive field to start their World Cup season in Lillehammer.  Friday 2 December marked the FIS World Cup debut of 21-year-old Phoebe Cridland and 28-year-old Elle Soehol Lie, who started off their World Cup careers with a 51st and 52nd place finish respectively in the Women’s 10km Individual Start freestyle. 

“My World Cup debut on my home track of Lillehammer was so much fun,” said Lie, who has both Norwegian and Australian citizenship. “There were so many good vibes out there, lots of people cheering. The waxing and support team had so much good energy, it was great to be a part of!”  

Aussie Olympians Seve de Campo and Lars Young Vik followed in the footsteps of their teammates, as a major change brought in by FIS this year means all World Cup events are raced over the same distance for men and women. De Campo finished the 10km Individual event in 72nd place, just ahead of Vik in 73rd. 

Vik and de Campo faced tough conditions in the Sprint Classic the next day, pulling off decent results with a 58th and 62th place finishes respectively, before Lie (51th) and Cridland (53rd) wrapped up their debut World Cup weekend racing in the 20km Mass Start Classic. 

The AUS XC team then moved on to Beitostølen for another weekend of racing. Again the Aussies delivered solid performances on the tracks, including personal bests from Lars Young Vik, who finished 58th in the Classic Sprint, and Ellen Soehol Lie, whose 52nd place was a classic distance PB. 

“Ten seconds behind the winner in a very strong field is a very positive start and definitely something to build on,” said Vik, who earlier in the year made his Olympic debut in Beijing along with de Campo. “It has been two great weekends of World Cup racing here in Norway with the team, with some great results.”

“It’s been lots of fun competing here in Norway,” agreed de Campo. “It’s been world class competition on some of the toughest courses on the World Cup circuit.” 

“As a team, we all showed some really good improvements from last year and can take some learning experiences towards more focused events later in the season, such as the World University Games and the World Championships,” he said. 

With the Norwegian events in the books, our cross-country skiers will now continue their preparation ahead of the next races, with Katerina Paul possibly targeting the first stages of the Tour de Ski at the end of the year, while de Campo and Cridland will be part of the team travelling to Lake Placid, USA for the World University Games between 12-22 January, 2023.

📷 | Lars Young Vik | @bildbyran