Over the weekend Falls Creek hosted the 2023 Victorian Junior Championships run by Snow Australia in partnership with the Victorian Committee. Nearly 40 athletes participated over the course of the weekend with age categories ranging from U10 to U20 including a very notable strong and large field of U20/U18 women. These were the first races of the season for these junior athletes and their first opportunity to test out their form after months of preseason preparation. Many of these athletes are in the age window for the upcoming 2024 Youth Olympic Games (to be held in South Korea) and will be ramping for selection races later in the season.
Saturday's program was a classic sprint where athletes first completed a time trial for ranking, followed by knock out rounds of quarterfinals, semi finals and finals. The youngest athletes raced over a course of 1km with the oldest athletes racing 1.5km.
After a competive morning of knock out heats, athletes lining up for the women's final were Maddie Hooker (U20), Olivia Schubert (U18), Rosie Franzke (U18) and Elle Sankey (U20). While Hooker took an early lead out of the start, Schubert was able to make up ground in the second half of the main climb opening a gap of several meters. However Hooker demonstrated her racing experience in an impressive effort to catch and overtake Schubert on the downhill section and into the finish.
On The Men's side Jayden Spring (U20), Boris Stanish (U20), Clancy Harvey (U18) and Jack Lowman (U20) were vying for a spot on the podium in the final. Initially the group stayed close up the first climb before Lowman took a fall and the lead group broke away with Spring taking a convincing lead over the final climb and into the downhill and finish.
U20/18 Mens Sprint Final
Hooker taking the lead in the Womens Sprint Final
Gray in the Women's 7.5km F
Break away group in the Mens 7.5km F
Sunday's program was the freestyle distance event in a mass start format (all athletes of the same age group start together) with the youngest age group completing 1km and the U20/U18 men and women both racing 7.5km. This is the first year both men and women have completed the same distance to come in line with changes at the international level where men and women's will now be racing the same distance.
In the U20/18 women's race, an initial break away group of 4 included Hooker, Schubert, Franzke and Hannah Gray (U20) with Hooker making a move early on the final lap to bring home a strong win.
In The U20/18 men's race there were some strong tactics with the leaders initially controlling a comfortable pace on the first lap before building the pace and forming a break away group consisting of Spring, Stanish and Harvey with Spring making a very decisive move on the final climb to take the lead and the win.
U20 Men's 7.5km F Podium
U20 Women's 7.5km F Podium
U18 Men's 7.5km F Podium
U18 Women's 7.5km F Podium
"I was happy to be back racing, the races were really fun and a great way to begin the season" - Hannah Gray
"The weekend worked really well for me, with nice weather and nice snow, however I have learnt that I need to be more on top of the grip waxing from heats to finals as I simply just left the klister which didn't work so well in the finals. I basically just played the sprint as a time trial for my heat and final and then the distance I played it more conservatively to try and sprint at the end. Thank you to the support team for all the waxing on Saturday, it was really helpful." - Jayden Spring
Spring flying up the hill in the Classisc Sprint
Start line of the Womens Classic Sprint
Millie Horsburgh in the Classic Sprint
Ally McEvoy in the Classic Sprint
Page updated
Report abuse