China Tour de Ski, Shangri-La, December 28

Paul Murray and Esther Bottomley made an impressive start in the opening Sprint of the China Tour de Ski, with Murray winning the opening men's time trial and Bottomley taking second place in the women's time trial. The Australian pair travelled to China from Europe on Wednesday for the series, which takes in four events over 9 days in three different locations in China. The opening stage was a Freestyle Sprint in Shangri-La, held on a 700m loop inside a football stadium at approximately 3200m above sea level (see link on Tour de Ski China website). In the finals both Australians were knocked out in the semi-finals, with Murray going on to win the B-Final and Bottomley taking second place in the B-Final behind Barbara Morrigl of Italy and ahead of Anna-Karin Stromstedt from Sweden. Peter Larsson from Sweden won the men's A-final, Solfrid Braathen from Norway won the women's A-final.

Swiss Cup, Campra, December 27-28

KT Calder and Chris Darlington each recorded their best race of the season at the Swiss Cup in Campra yesterday, with Calder finishing 4th just 6 seconds from the podium in the 5km Freestyle and Darlington finishing 17th in the 15km Freestyle. Calder started fast to be in touch with the leaders early on, and held onto third place for most of the race before fading in the final kilometre. The race was won by Swiss skier Seraina Boner. Darlington was feeling crook in the stomach the night before the race, and was contemplating withdrawing right up until just before the start. In the race he felt the best he has so far this season, finishing 5 minutes behind the winner Toni Livers from Switzerland to score FIS points of 156. Calder's FIS points of 91 are her best in the last two years.

The next day in the mass start Classic competitions both Calder and Darlington were a bit down on the previous day. Calder got a little tangled up early on in the 10km Classic and was unable to match the pace set by Leonardi-Cortesi , losing 30 seconds in the first 2km. She skied most of the rest of the race in 5th place with Bettina Gruber, but was outsprinted to the finish to end up 6th, 1:20 behind Doris Trachsel. Darlington started okay and was 1:20 behind the lead pack after the first 5km lap, but was a little short on grip and lost time on the next two laps to end up around 6 minutes off the pace. Livers won again.

For Darlo, that's the end of his racing season. It is unfortunate, as he only just now starting to find a bit of form. He travels home next week via New Year's Eve in Edinburgh, and then it is back to work in Jindabyne. Calder will have a training block for two weeks now, before heading over to Canada for the World Cups in Canmore.

Courtesy XC Files