August 17, 2012 – Skiers from around the world are converging on Falls Creek for the Kangaroo Hoppet, the opening event of the 2012/2013 Worldloppet season, which will be held on August 25. Good snowfalls last weekend topped up the snow base, and with 50km of trails available for training, early arrivals are enjoying excellent conditions.

With skiers in the seeded group from Russia, Canada, Sweden, Estonia, Switzerland and USA joining our best Australian skiers, we are expecting some exciting competition. Favourites in the men’s event are Russians Alexander Legkov and Ilya Chernousov who are making a four week training camp at Falls Creek, with Maria Graefnings (SWE), Marina Chernousova (RUS), and Brooke Darlington (CAN) the leading internationals in the women’s field. Top seeded Australians are Callum Watson, Alex Almoukov, Esther Bottomley and Aimee Watson.

As in all Worldloppet races, the event is not just for the elite. Most important are the citizen skiers, many of whom are taking on the challenge of becoming a Worldloppet Master. Skiers from twenty five other lands will join Australians at the start, including Norwegian sit skier and Worldloppet Master Ole Herman Ronnevig making his first trip to Australia.

March 24, 2011 – The general feedback on the 2011 World Championship in Oslo was that it was the biggest most spectacular World Championship ever held. Over 100,000 spectators were in the stands or out around the track each day for the last weekend of competition, and even the qualification race the day before the first official World Championship medal event had a bigger crowd than most World Cup events in central Europe. Seven Australian athletes competed – Esther Bottomley, Ben Sim, Callum Watson, Ewan Watson, Nick Grimmer, Mark van der Ploeg and Chris Darlington. The competition highlights for the Australian Team were Esther Bottomley’s 44th place in the Sprint Freestyle, the 19th place of Ben Sim and Callum Watson in the Team Sprint, and the 10km qualification race in which Mark van der Ploeg and Ewan Watson finished 4th and 6th. The lowlight was the overlapping of the men’s relay team before Mark van der Ploeg had a chance to start to the final leg. Waxing conditions were the most challenging the team has experienced probably since the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, not with grip waxing as can often be the case but from the glide perspective. The overall summary: Great atmosphere, incredible event, some solid results, it would have nice to have some faster skis and higher results in a couple of the distance events.

Most of the team athletes are now back in Australia, with the exception of Esther Bottomley who finished a very creditable 14th in the Engadin Ski Marathon two weeks ago and plans to race the Swiss Championship next weekend.

More details from the World Championship can be viewed on the AUS XC Website HERE.

National Rollerski Event, Canberra, April 23-24
On the Easter weekend of April 23-24 Ski Australia is organising some rollerski events in Canberra. While there are still some details to be sorted out with ACT Roads and the land managers, the preliminary schedule of events is as follows:

Saturday April 23
– 10:00 am – 3.3km Uphill Classic Time Trial – Mt Stromlo Road
– 2:00 pm – Freestyle Criterium – Canberra Institute of Technology, Bruce
Saturday April 24
– 10:00 am – 3.3km Uphill Freestyle Event – Mt Stromlo Road

More details will be available soon on the AUS XC Website.