Bottomley and Leccardi win 2010 Kangaroo Hoppet at Falls Creek

Mon, Aug  30, 2010 - By FIS

On Saturday August 28 the weather gods smiled on the 20th running of the Kangaroo Hoppet, Australia's international ski marathon. Perfect racing conditions at Falls Creek greeted the thousand plus competitors for a spectacular tour of the Bogong High Plains.

At the elite end of the competition it was a couple of Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympians who claimed victory - local Mt Beauty skier Esther Bottomley and her boyfriend Valerio Leccardi from Switzerland.

After nearly one metre of fresh snow at Falls Creek this week the snow groomers did an amazing job to get the 21km course packed and ready for the event. Organisers were worried about the dry snow drifting in across the race track however the wind died off during the night and the main concern turned out to be preventing sunburn from the bright sun. Over 1000 competitors from 23 nationalities entered in the three race distances of 42km, 21km, and 7km.

The women's field was led out by Anastasiya Kuzmina from Slovakia, who with gold and silver medals in biathlon from Vancouver 2010 was the clear pre-race favourite. After 5km it looked as though Bottomley, Lena Pichard from Switzerland and Aimee Watson from Sydney would be skiing for the minor podium places. However Bottomley bridged the gap and skied with Kuzmina to the end of the fist lap, then broke away and steadily built up her lead on the second lap. At the end Bottomley won in the time of 1:55:49, 1:05 ahead of Kuzmina, with Watson taking third. Fourth went to former US Ski Team member Sarah Konrad and Pichard was fifth.

The men's 42km event saw the tightest battle amongst the leading competitors seen for many years. Only one minute and 20 seconds separated the top five men, with Leccardi breaking away to win by 28 seconds ahead of second placed Alex Almoukov from Berridale, who in turn pipped his NSW team-mate Ben Sim from Cooma by less than a metre on the finish-line. Both Almoukov and Sim represented Australia at the 2010 Winter Olympics, Almoukov in biathlon and Sim in cross country. Fourth place went to Callum Watson from Sydney, with another Vancouver Olympian Garrott Kuzzy from the USA taking fifth. All five skiers were still together after 30km, before first Sim then Leccardi put the foot down and broke the pack up.

Leccardi is staying in Australia for a month, living in Mt Beauty and training at Falls Creek as part of preparation for the 2010/2011 World Cup season.

The Hoppet is the opening race of the 2010/2011 Worldloppet series of cross country skiing marathons, which are held in 15 nations around the world. The event was supported by AGL Hydro, Australia's largest private producer of renewable energy, Tourism Victoria and the Keep Winter Cool campaign, the Falls Creek Alpine Resort, and Australian sport clothing brand 2XU.

Mark Raymond from Alexandra and NSW junior Lucy Glanville from Sydney won the 21km Australian Birkebeiner event, while Alasdair Tutt from Wangaratta and Gabriella Cigana from Cooma were first in the 7km Joey Hoppet.

The Kangaroo Hoppet is also the final race in the 2010 FIS Australia New Zealand Cup (ANC), one of eight Continental Cup series around the world endorsed by the International Ski Federation. The winners of the Continental Cup series receive their own quota place for a number of events in the 2010/2011 FIS World Cup series. The 2010 ANC winners were Callum Watson from Sydney and Esther Bottomley from Mt Beauty, both of whom had the series pretty much sown up before this final event.

2010 Kangaroo Hoppet Race Results

42km Freestyle Kangaroo Hoppet

Men
1 Valerio Leccardi SUI 1:42:46
2 Alex Almoukov AUS 1:43:14
3 Ben Sim AUS 1:43:15
4 Callum Watson AUS 1:43:36
5 Garrott Kuzzy USA 1:44:07
6 Chris Darlington AUS 1:50:10
7 Anthony Evans AUS 1:52:19
8 Ewan Watson AUS 1:52:53
9 Ben Derrick AUS 1:53:43
10 Leon Spiller AUS 1:54:16

Women
1 Esther Bottomley AUS 1:55:49
2 Anastasiya Kuzmina SVK 1:56:55
3 Aimee Watson AUS 2:01:55
4 Sarah Konrad USA 2:05:22
5 Lena Pichard SUI 2:08:03
6 Belinda Phillips AUS 2:16:08
7 Johanna Eden SWE 2:17:08
8 Chloe McConville AUS 2:21:09
9 Kerryn Rim AUS 2:23:12
10 Irene Dunn AUS 2:23:28

21km Australian Birkebeiner

Men
1 Mark Raymond AUS 56:46
2 Paul Gray AUS 58:25
3 Colby Rook AUS 58:40

Women
1 Lucy Glanville AUS 1:03:23
2 Lescinska Grimmer AUS 1:04:33
3 Georgia Merritt AUS 1:08:00

7km Joey Hoppet

Men
1 Alasdair Tutt AUS 18:04
2 Damon Morton AUS 18:34
3 Hamish Roberts AUS 18:57
Women
1 Gabriella Cigana AUS 20:35
2 Casey Wright AUS 22:20
3 Meredith Harvey AUS 22:37

Full results available on www.hoppet.com.au