Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Australian skier Ben Sim and New Zealand's Samantha Bonderenko have claimed the trophies in the 2006 FIS Australia New Zealand Cup, the only southern hemisphere FIS Continental Cup series for cross country skiing.

Sim won the last three events in the series to secure his win ahead of Geoffroy Pais from France. He finished on 530 points, 108 ahead of the Frenchman, with Ben Derrick in third place on 185 points.

Bondarenko skied a solid sixth place in the Kangaroo Hoppet to keep her 38 points clear of Natascia Leonardi-Cortesi from Switzerland, with Australia's best, KT Calder, ending the series in third place, a further 20 points behind.

The winners of each of the FIS Continental Cup series around the world are given extra quota places on World Cup and have their expenses paid for these events, the same as for World Cup Red Group skiers (the top 30 in the world). [Note that the winners still need to satisfy the FIS point performance standard required to ski World Cup.] (Story with the assistance of The XC Files)

 

Women's Top 10 Final Standings:
1	338 - Samantha Bondarenko, NZE
2	300 - Natascia Leonardi-Cortesi, SUI
3	280 - Katherine Calder, AUS
5	182 - Belinda Phillips, AUS
6	160 - Aimee Watson, AUS
7	150 - Esther Bottomley, AUS
8	146 - Camille Melvey, AUS
10	117 - d'Arcy Baxter, AUS
Men's Top 10 Final Standing:
1	530 - Ben Sim, AUS
2	422 - Geoffroy Pais, FRA
3	185 - Ben Derrick, AUS
5	170 - Neil van der Ploeg, AUS
6	164 - Chris Darlington, AUS
7	158 - Mark van der Ploeg, AUS

Courtesy OWI/Sportcom

 

Ben Sim leads the field away at the start of the Kangaroo Hoppet at Falls Creek. The 21-year-old Cooma skier went on to win his second consecutive Hoppet. (Pic courtesy of the XC Files)