W.L. Racing Begins

From: http://www.worldloppet.com/news.php?id=387

Kangaroo Hoppet 13

Kangaroo Hoppet
31.08.2003
The 13th annual Kangaroo Hoppet was held today at Falls Creek in North-East
Victoria. In extreme conditions Ben Derrick from Wangaratta and Belinda
Phillips from Falls Creek won the main event, both becoming the first skiers
to win three Hoppets. The Kangaroo Hoppet is Australia's leg of the
Worldloppet series of cross country ski races, which includes 14
long-distance ski events world-wide attracting over 90,000 participants
annually.

Strong winds and horizontally falling snow forced the race jury to change
the course and run a shortened event using the Sun Valley Loop. The Kangaroo
Hoppet distance was halved to 21km, or three laps of the traditional 7km
Joey Hoppet loop, with the normal 21km event reduced to 14km and two laps.
Despite the adverse conditions the majority of race entrants participated,
including the Deputy Premier of Victoria John Thwaites, who after officially
firing the gun for start of the 21km skied the 7km event 20 minutes later.

The race could have gone horribly wrong for Derrick, when 500m out of the
start he broke one of his poles as skiers jostled for position in the pack.
Luckily he received a new pole almost immediately from a friend in the pack
and didn't lose too much time. Cameron Morton from Victoria lead a breakaway
group on the first lap, which included Derrick, Swiss skier Pascal Grab,
Daniel Van der Ploeg from Victoria, and NSW Institute of Sport skier Chris
Darlington. Derrick went to the front and picked up the pace at the start
the second lap, dropping Darlington and Grab, and then gradually worked his
way to a small but significant break from Mortonand Van der Ploeg. Weaving
in and out of lapped skiers on the last lap Derrick didn't look back, and
went on to win by just over a minute. Morton had made a break on Van der
Ploeg and thought he had second place in the bag, however Van der Ploeg
caught him by surprise 100m out from the finish and sprinted past to claim s
econd by less than a metre. Grab from Switzerland out-sprinted Darlington to
take 4th place.

Phillips lead the women's field the entire race, however for the first part
of the race she didn't know it. Mixed in amongst the men and with poor
visibility, it was only when the commentators announced her as the leading
woman after the first lap that she realised she was in front. Clare-Louise
Brumley from Templestowe and Camille Melvey from Bondi were actually not far
behind for the first half of the race, however Phillips got a better run
through the lapping traffic on the second lap and established a sizeable
lead. In the end the 30-year old who won by nearly two minutes, with Melvey
fighting her way to second place and Brumley taking third.

It was the third Kangaroo Hoppet win for both Phillip and Derrick, with this
victory making it three and row forPhillips, and three out of four for
Derrick. Both skiers live, work and train out of the Howmans Gap Alpine
Centre near Falls Creek during the winter.

2003 Kangaroo Hoppet 42km (21km)


Top 10 Men
1 Ben Derrick, Victoria
2 Daniel van der Ploeg, Victoria
3 Cameron Morton, Victoria
4 Pascal Grab, SWITZERLAND
5 Chris Darlington, NSW
6 Paul Murray, Victoria
7 Gaber Lah, SLOVENIA
8 Mark Raymond, Victoria
9 Leon Spiller, Victoria
10 Nick Almoukov, NSW

Top 10 Women
1 Belinda Phillips, Victoria
2 Camille Melvey, NSW
3 Clare-Louise Brumley, Victoria
4 Robin Rodd, Victoria
5 Rhiannon Palmer, Victoria
6 Mary Feeney-Hall, USA
7 Carla Zijlstra-Evans, NETHERLANDS
8 Michele Callisaya, Tasmania
9 Sandra Paul, Victoria
10 Jenny Kromar, Victoria


2003 Australian Birkebeiner 21km (14km)


Top 3 Men
1 Ben Sim, NSW
2 Andrew Mock, Victoria
3 Paul Gray, Victoria

Top 3 Women
1 KT Calder, ACT
2 Esther Bottomley, Victoria
3 Sally Cunningham, ACT


2003 Joey Hoppet 7km


Top 3 Men
1 Neil Van Der Ploeg, Victoria
2 Ewan Watson, NSW
3 Ian Bottomley, Victoria

Top 3 Women
1 Aimee Watson, NSW
2 Jaffa Withers, Victoria
3 Kelly Hertzog, Victoria