Dresden World Cup & St Ulrich OPA Cup Preview
Published Fri 17 Dec 2021
This coming weekend sees both the next round of the FIS Cross Country Skiing World Cup in Dresden, Germany, and the FIS OPA Cup in St Ulrich, Austria. The bulk of the Australian Team is heading to St Ulrich, with just two men flying the flag in Dresden.
Dresden is a Sprint weekend, featuring the only Team Sprint on the World Cup calendar this season. That’s the main attraction for Phillip Bellingham and Seve de Campo to travel to Germany, to gain additional sprint exchange experience in advance of the Beijing Olympics.
Australia’s best ever Sprint World Cup results were achieved in Dresden, with Jessica Yeaton and Barbara Jezersek finishing 10th, and Bellingham and Callum Watson 12th, in the Team Sprint in January 2018. Bellingham also made the individual Sprint top 30 and finals on the same weekend.
In St Ulrich there are 10 and 15km events each day – Classic on Saturday, and Freestyle Mass Start on Sunday. These events will be used for selection for the next World Cup events after Christmas in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The following athletes are entered in St Ulrich:
|
Women |
Men |
|
Aimee Watson Anna Trnka Casey Wright Ella Jackson Ellen Soehol Lie Hannah Price Jessica Yeaton Phoebe Cridland Sarah Slattery Tuva Bygrave Zana Evans |
Adam Barnett Bentley Walker-Broose Declan Burke Cal Britten Charles Hiam Fedele de Campo Hugo Hinckfuss John Mordes Lars Young Vik Mark Pollock Nic Blackwell Tom Hoogenraad |
Many of the Australians have raced in St Ulrich before as it’s regular venue on the OPA Cup circuit. Live timing is available for both events via the FIS website