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

Perisher is located in the Snowy Mountains, the largest ski resort in Southern Hemisphere, offering over 100km of marked cross-country trails. 

On Saturday’s sprint competition, Katerina Paul won, followed by Zana Evans and Phoebe Cridland. Lars Young Vik was the strongest on the men’s field, followed by Seve De Campo and Fedele De Campo. 

On Sunday, the skiers competed in the 5km and 10km classic races. The women’s race saw the same trio on the podium as Saturday, now Phoebe Cridland posting the fastest time of the day; 14:59.8 followed by Zana Evans, 23.1 seconds behind, and Katerina Paul in third place, 26.1 seconds behind the day’s winner. 

The men’s 10km saw new faces on the podium when Seve De Campo took the victory with a time of 26:25.1, followed by US skier Peter Wolter 11.7 seconds behind and Bentley Walker-Broose in the third place 29.9 seconds back. Saturday’s sprint winner Lars Young Vik was 4th, completing the national Championships podium. 

Weekend’s Sprint Champions Lars Young Vik and Katerina Paul commented on the races on Snow Australia’s Instagram: 

“Weather turned out quite nice, good competition, lot of fast skiers and always fun to race, and yeah, I had a great time,” Vik stated. 

“It started to be quite powdery, and women went out in a slash. The big case of the day was finish in second and third at the finish and draft and then switch around.” Paul said as she took home the second sprint national title of the season. 

Katerina Paul also talked about the importance of the nationals for skiing and the sport in Australia: 

“So important for the development of the sport and anticipation that everyone comes, and it is a good experience and good practice because you can never go out of racing and it is such a short season, so why not come and take part of the nationals here.”

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

The first championship weekend was contested at the end of July in Falls Creek, Victoria, with classic sprint and skate distances. You can read more about the first weekend here.

Next weekend the Australian cross-country ski community will enjoy long-distance racing when the 42km Kangaroo Hoppet takes place on Saturday 27th at Falls Creek, Australia. The race is starred with some strong names as US Ski Team members Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern, alongside some Australian National Team members standing on the start line.