August 07, 2010 (Wanaka, NZ) – Canada’s Devon Kershaw won the opening FIS Australia – New Zealand Cup 10/15km classic mass start race in Wanaka on Friday at the Waiorau Snow Farm.  The race was a tight one, with the top six competitors all within a minute of each other.

Kershaw had to scramble towards the end, and just managed to edge out the USA’s Kris Freeman with Ivan Babikov (Can) claiming 3rd.  Alex Harvey (Can) was 4th followed by the USA’s Noah Hoffman in 5th. Freeman attacked with 2km to go but Kershaw responded and was able to catch the charging American and take the win with a 7s margin.

“It was an impressive effort for Freeman,” said the USA’s Kikkan Randall who did not race due to a cold. “Essentially he picked up the same cold as I did on Thursday but chose to race.  He said it was tough, but he was happy with his effort.”

In the women’s 10km was the USA’s Liz Stephen had to out-lunge her team mate Morgan Arritola at the finish for the win. Fellow American Kikkan Randall was not on the start line as she has a cold and withdrew before the race got underway. Canada’s Chandra Crawford who was in the mix with the leaders decided to withdraw as she’s been feeling some discomfort from a back injury and wanted to focus on Saturday’s sprint.

” The women’s 10km mass-start was really a 2-woman race,” said Randall. “Liz Stephen and Morgan Arritola pulled away in the first 3km and skied side-by-side most of the race.  They were neck and neck all the way to the line, with Stephen just pulling ahead by a stride length 10m before the finish.”

“The races looked pretty awesome, I was bummed not to be racing,” added Randall. “I picked up a cold on Thursday and chose to sit out the races to try and get healthy before traveling back to North America.  Other than the cold it’s been a great camp for me.”

With files from CCC

Results

Elite Men

1. Devon Kershaw (Can ) 40:02.0
2. Kris Freeman (USA) 00:07.0
3. Ivan Babikov (Can ) 00:10.0
4. Alex Harvey (Can ) 00:11.0
5. Noah Hoffman (USA) 00:30.0
6. Stefan Kuhn (Can ) 00:57.0
7. Callum Watson (Aus ) 02:10.0
8. Nils Koons (Nze ) 02:11.0
9. Ben Koons (Nze ) 02:26.0
10. Chris Darlington (Aus ) 04:09.0
11. Jun-Gil Lee (Kor ) 04:57.0
12. Pavel Sotskov (USA) 05:19.0
13. Andrew Pohl (Nze ) 05:26.0
14. Hak Su Im (Kor ) 07:18.0
15. Leon Spiller (Aus ) 07:44.0
16. Nat Anglem (Nze ) 07:44.0
17. Justin Fereshetian (USA) 08:52.0
18. Andrew Nesbitt (USA) 09:55.0
19. Cam Day (Nze ) 22:36.0
20. Cesar Baena (Vza ) 31:39.0

Elite Women

1. Elizabeth Stephen 30:47.0
2. Morgan Arritola (USA) s.t.
3. Chisa Obayashi (Jpn) 01:15.0
4. Esther Bottomley (Aus) 01:27.0
5. Chae-Won Lee (Kor) 02:02.0
6. Yuki Sekiya (Jpn) 04:28.0
7. Sarah Murphy (Nze) 05:25.0
8. Maddy Phifer (USA) 05:49.0
9. Belinda Phillips (Aus) 07:38.0
10. Shelby Aseltine (USA) 08:06.0
11. Molly Hoopes (USA) 11:44.0
12. Anna Hogg (Nze) 14:03.0
13. Emily Deacon (Nze) 17:23.0