Yeaton claims Sprint victory as Aussie team perform strongly in Europe
Published Mon 04 Dec 2017
Jessica Yeaton has started off her season in style with a victory in the Sprint event at the Swiss Championships in Goms.
In what was a strong weekend all round for Australian skiers, Yeaton finished second on the timesheets in qualification before defeating a strong field in the final of the 1.2km event to claim top spot on the podium.
"I was really excited about winning the sprint in Goms," Yeaton said.
"Headed into the race I was confident with my ability to qualify well. I surprised myself by skiing stronger in the rounds than in the qualifier, which is something I have been working on."
Yeaton returned a day later to claim fifth in the 7.5km event finishing 42.6 seconds behind Swiss winner Desiree Steiner.
"Although I was also hoping for a podium finish in the distance race, I was pleased with my fifth place finish," Yeaton continued
"There are definitely areas I want to improve upon in my classic distance skiing, but I think I had a strong performance overall."
Phil Bellingham was the first Australian across the line in the men’s Sprint claiming eighth while fellow Sochi 2014 Olympian Callum Watson claimed 14th over the 1.4km course. Fellow Aussies Mark Pollock and Paul Kovacs were 24th and 27th.
Bellingham was again the top Aussie in the 15km, finishing 10th with Watson in 17th, Liam Burton in 20th, Kovacs in 23rd and Pollock in 32nd.
"I was pretty happy with it all, was good to get a good score on the board this early in the season, it gives me confidence leading into the World Cup this weekend," Bellingham said.
"The course was a tough one with lots of climbing which usually doesn't suit me so much but with firm snow conditions it ended up being fairly fast which suited me."
In Italy, Barbara Jezersek competed at the Visma Ski Classics series where she placed 9th in the 35km La Sgambeda event.
Jezersek finished the course in 1:38:23.0, just under four minutes behind Swedish dual World Championships medallist Britta Johansson Norgren.
“I was happy with my performance and ended up with strong 9th place,” she said.
“The feelings are good, but I still haven't raced in any short races this season.
“I'm super excited for my first World Cup race in the season here in Davos (next weekend).
“Now I will do some more training in skate technique and get ready for Davos and Toblach.”
Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au