The second Nationals Weekend took place in Perisher, Australia, with skate sprint and classic distance races on the schedule.

Perisher is located in the Snowy Mountains, Australia, is the largest ski resort in Southern Hemisphere, offering over 100km of marked cross-country trails.  German national Christian Winker and NSW local Rosie Fordham dominated both the sprint and distance events. 

Winker shared a bit about his time in Australia “Australia is great for ski training, easy and tough tracks and all of that in altitude. Sadly, this winter season hadn’t been the best here, so it could be even better.” The Australian winter season has been unusually warm and a relatively dry winter, with the upcoming Kangaroo Hoppet, cancelled.

The Kangaroo Hoppet is Cancelled

Fordham mentioned “The snow conditions were pretty tricky with rain and warm temps leading to the course deteriorating quickly. The conditions made for difficult skiing, with slow patches on the downhill in the skate sprint it was a lot about staying upright and moving forward rather than skiing powerfully and fast.”

Winker elaborated further on the race weekend, “Races down here are bit different than at home, often tight winding trails. Due to that, yesterday’s heats had been tactically demanding, also because the track softened, and the conditions got slower. I had been back in the heats and managed to finish strong by overtaking in the final stretch.” During the Distance on Sunday, Winker was the only

Winker will be focusing on racing this upcoming season with the skate marathon team, Terrex XC Ski Team. However, when asked if we would see him on the Ski Classics circuit Winker mentioned, “I’d like to race few ski classics next season, mainly in March.” However, at this stage he is without a team.

Skate Sprint M 

1. Christian Winker
2. Seve De Campo
3. Bentley Walker-Broose 
4. Jayden Spring

Skate Sprint F 

1. Rosie Fordham 
2. Rosie Franzke 
3. Emily Champion
4. Satara Moon

Classic Distance M

1. Christian Winker
2. Seve De Campo
3. Phillip Bellingham 
4. Liam Burton 

Classic Distance F

1. Rosie Fordham 
2. Hannah Price 
3. Rosie Franzke 
4. Emily Champion

You can find the full sprint and distance event results here. 

See more: Australian XC National Championships – Weekend 1