XC - The Australian Cross Country Skiing Website

XC Files

| Main | Files | Results | Links |
Features | General | ASI Reports

ASI Team Reports 97/98

Report 1 - Mt Beauty, October 14

It is just over a week until the advanced party of the Australian Ski Institute World Cup team is departing for Europe. The goals for this season are almost entirely centered around results at the Winter Olympics in Nagano Japan. Three skiers will be skiing World Cup and vying for selection to the Winter Olympic Team, under the direction of ASI Head Coach, Christer Skog. These skiers are: Anthony Evans, Paul Gray, and Finn Marsland. These were the only Australian skiers to reach the World Cup qualifying standard of 75 FIS points last season. Anthony Evans is currently the only skier to have satisfied the AOC selection standard with his 36th place in the 10km at the 1997 World Championships in Trondheim.

Paul Gray and Finn Marsland will depart for Europe on October 23, and ski all the pre-christmas World Cup races.Their aim is to reach the AOC selection standard of 57 FIS points. Anthony Evans will depart at a later date and will ski in World Cup after christmas. As Australia has only two starts in any given World Cup event, Paul and Finn will then alternate starts depending on their form at the time.

The travel and race schedule for Finn and Paul before Christmas is as follows:


October 24:
Arrive Mora, Sweden (Based at the MoraParken Hotel)

October 30 - November 9
Training camp, Kiruna, Sweden

November 11
10km classic race, Beitostølen, Norway

November 12
15km skating race, Geilo, Norway

November 22
World Cup, 10km classic, Beitostølen, Norway

December 13
World Cup, 10km classic, Val di Fiemme, Italy

December 16
World Cup, 15km skating, Seefeld, Austria

December 20
World Cup, 30km classic, Davos, Switzerland

World Cup resumes again on January 3 in Kavgolovgo in Russia.


Before and after the three December World Cup races, the team will be based in Mora. In other races in Sweden, the ASI team will ski for Oxvreten, a ski club from just south of Stockholm. If Paul and Finn reach the form of Anthony at the end of December last year, other Swedish clubs had better watch out in the Annandag Stafett in Mora on Boxing Day.

Christer Skog is currently on his way down to Austria to pick up some new skis from Fischer and Atomic. Fast skis will play an important part in good results at the Winter Olympics. Nagano is renowned for having snow conditions similar to that of Australia - changing and often wet due to high temperatures during the day.

The next report will be from Sweden at the start of November.


XC is the official website of the Skiing Australia Cross Country Committee. It is produced with the assistance of the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Ski Institute and the Kangaroo Hoppet. The editor can be contacted via hoppet@netc.net.au.