AUSXC Open / Junior / Para Championship Action

The 2025 Australian Cross Country Skiing Championship concluded on the weekend of August 16/17 at Falls Creek. In the Open class Rosie Fordham and Seve de Campo made a clean sweep of the Sprint and 10km events, also securing the 205 FIS Continental Cup titles in the process. Over 70 competitors took part in the races across Open, Junior, Masters and Para classes.

The events were organised by the Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club on behalf of Snow Australia, with timing by Alpine Timing and grooming by the Falls Creek Alpine Resort. Many thanks to the race organisers and dozens of volunteers who helped make the events successful.

Saturday's Classic Sprint events saw challenging waxing conditions for athletes and coaches, with fresh snow dumping right as the qualification round began. Lauro Braendli from Switzerland topped the open men's qualification by over 6 seconds by double poling on skate skis and running through the technique zones, while many athletes struggled with snow "balling up" underfoot and inhibiting glide. Though several other skiers successfully adopted the same tactics through the heats, in the men's final Australian Team athletes Seve de Campo and Phil Bellingham were able to gain enough of a lead on the climbs using classic skis and held to take first and second place. Third place went to first-year senior Jayden Spring, ahead of Braendli.

Men Open Sprint: L-R Phil Bellingham, Seve de Campo, Jayden Spring

In the women's finals the fastest qualifier Rosie Fordham struggled in her heat with her classic skis and only just scraped through to the semis. From there on the World U23 silver medallist dominated, running out the clear winner in the A-final. Junior Satara Moon hung on in the final straight for second place ahead of a fast-finishing Hannah Price, with Elle Sankey rounding out the final in 4th place.

Women Open Sprint: L-R Elle Sankey, Satara Moon, Hannah Price, Rosie Fordham

For the first time ever in Australia FIS Para XC events were held at these championships, leading to a combined sprint final with two different categories of sit-skiers racing against a visually impaired (VI) athlete. With no tracks and poor visibility due to the new snow conditions were even more challenging for the Para athletes. With times adjusted for the different categories, Dave Miln won the Sitski class ahead of Matt Brumby, with Taryn Dickens taking the gold medal for the VI class with her guide Lynn-Maree Cullen.

Para XC Men: L-R Matt Brumby, Dave Miln

Para XC Women: L-R Lynn-Maree Cullen, Taryn Dickens

In the junior categories the Open Junior titles (awarded to the fastest skiers U20) were awarded to Satara Moon in the women and Samuel Johnson in the men. Full results for all Sprints are available via this link to Alpine Timing.

On Sunday conditions were excellent for the Freestyle Distance races, all held in interval start format. First off the rank was the Para 5km event, held on a 2.5km loop. Dave Miln in the Sitski LW12 classification posted the fastest time ahead of Matt Brumby in the LW10 classification. After time adjustment for the different categories the time gap narrowed, but not enough for Brumby to take the title from Miln.

Matt Brumby in action in the 5km 

In the women's Open 10km Rosie Fordham started as the back-marker and worked her way through the field, already holding a lead of over a minute ahead of second-placed Hannah Price after the first 5km lap. The battle for third was close, with Rosie Frankze just a few seconds up on Isabella Moon and Satara Moon (no relation). On the second lap Fordham extended her lead as she overtook most of the field, taking the win over two minutes ahead of Price and making it four-from-four for the FIS Continenal Cup series races. Isabella Moon finished stronger to claim 3rd place ahead of Rosie Franzke, Franzke claiming the Open Junior win ahead of Satara Moon who had to be satisfied with just the U18 title on this occasion.

Rosie Fordham in the 10km

In the men's 10km many eyes were on Seve de Campo and Phil Bellingham, who after the Sprint were separated by just 5 points in the Continental Cup.  After 5km de Campo held a slender lead of less than 5 seconds, with de Campo keeping Bellingham in his sights having started 30 seconds behind. As the race progressed de Campo closed the gap and overtook Bellingham, but he couldn't shake him and the two pushed each other all the way to the finish to take gold and silver.  Meanwhile, a battle was underway for the Bronze with Lauro Braendli only 2 seconds ahead of Noah Bradford after 5km. This race went right down to the wire, with Braendli holding that 2 second buffer over the line at 10km. Samuel Johnson was again the Open Junior winner, taking 6th place overall.

Seve de Campo in the 10km

Amongst the other junior classes Liam Cullen Croke was the first U18 man. In the U16 class the first man was Alberto Allan in a tight race ahead of Ben Wichgers. Ivy Potocki won the women's U16 ahead of her twin Zara Potocki.  Just 3 seconds separated the U14 women's winner Bethany Franzke from second placed Genevieve Dubrava. Jackson Landon-Smith won the men's U14. After some issues on the day with timing data, the U12 women's first place was awarded to Isla Harriss. In the U12 men Angus Skilton was the fastest.

All distance results are available via this link to Alpine Timing.