Snow Arrives for the ACT/NSW XC Championships

Original article by Karen Forman published in the Monaro Post

It is said, ``if you want it to snow, then put on a ski race,’’ and that is exactly what happened at the weekend, just in time for the ACT XC Open and Junior Cross Country Ski Sprint Championships and the NSW XC Open, Junior and Masters Distance Championships at the Perisher Cross Country Centre.

A few centimetres overnight Friday provided good conditions for the sprints on Saturday, but more than a few centimetres and blizzard conditions Saturday night and Sunday morning resulted in the distance event being postponed until next Saturday, July 23, for safety reasons. Entries have reopened for this event on the Snow Australia website until midnight Wednesday July 20. It will be a mass start event.

Held on the ``sprint loop’’ over 600m and 1200m outside the Nordic Shelter, Saturday’s event – on classical cross-country skis – attracted a classy and very enthusiastic field ranging in age from under 12s through to 2022 Winter Olympian Seve de Campo in the Open division.

Athletes were required to complete an individual time trial and then were seeded into heats and finals to determine the new state champions. Medals and certificates were presented by NSWACT XC Head Coach Alexei Sotskov.

Sotskov said he had been impressed at the attention to technique by athletes during the event as well as their enthusiasm and enjoyment of the racing. He commented on the great teamsmanship among his own athletes and general support of all racers.

ACT based de Campo, at Perisher to train and race for the winter ahead of the National Championships at Falls Creek in August, took the gold in the open male division ahead of Jindabyne local, Declan Burke with NSW skier Noah Bradford picking up the bronze.

The open women’s winner was NSW (local) skier Sarah Slattery.  In under 12 females, it was NSW all the way with Hannah Wichgers taking gold, Sapphire Sparke the silver and Ivy Potocki the bronze, with twin sister Zara Potocki just off the podium in close fourth.

Sarah Slattery on the way to winning the Classic Sprint

Jindabyne local Jackson Landon-Smith took gold in the under 12 males ahead of fellow NSW skier Eric Murtagh-Herlihy, while Eric’s sister Rose was the gold medallist in the under 14 females just edging out ACT skier Josie Wright.

NSW athlete Alberto Allan was the gold medallist in the under 14 males with Ben Wichgers (NSW) taking silver and Edward Johnson (ACT) the bronze. Chili Sparke of NSW just edged out Satara Moon for gold/silver in the under 16 female division and there was a similar space of just seconds between the under 16 male gold medallist TJ Bradford and silver medalist TJ Bradford.

Rhiannon Castle took gold ahead of silver medallist Sean’Hope Craig  and bronze medallist Alessandra Sydun-West in the under 18 females, while Phoenix Sparkes was the gold medallist in the under 18 male, Sam Johnson took silver and Romeo Atra bronze.

NSWACT XC also took on the running of the debut regional Interschools Nordic Day cross country ski event on Monday morning, setting 34 athletes from all around NSW and the ACT off on a short sprint loop. After a snowy, windy start to the day, the weather cleared for the skiers to enjoy freshly groomed, newly fallen snow. Many then headed off to the second half of the day – a biathlon event – and then across to the other side of the road for Southern and ACT Regional Interschools downhill ski and snowboard events.

Next weekend, apart from the rescheduled NSW Distance Championships from 9:30am Saturday, the PXC Come and Try XC Skiing will offer newcomers a chance to try the sport from 830am and the Cooma Open citizen race will be held on Sunday from 11am (entry on the day.

For more information about cross country skiing, the race calendar, online race entries and NSWACT XC coaching programs, visit: www.perisherxcountry.org

The NSWACT crew that put on the event at PXC