Sports
Ice breaker
By Barry Rollings

Volume 49, No. 4, March 22, 2007
 
BEADY-EYED: SGT Carl Trindorfer from RAAF Base Williamtown in training at Obertilliach in January. Photo courtesy of SQNLDR Bob Schouten
 
THE ADF’s 14-member Nordic and biathlon skiing team met with mixed fortunes on its 16-day January tour to Europe.

Exercise Rucksack, the British National, Inter-Service and Army Biathlon and Cross Country Ski Championships, allowed the Aussies to forge closer links with the British military at the event held annually at Ruhpolding in Germany.

Training and acclimatisation began in earnest for 14 days on a good covering of snow at Obertilliach, a small Austrian village.

“We liken the six weeks of training and competition to about three seasons of snow in Australia,” ADF team manager SQNLDR Robert Schouten said. “Many of the participants had not carried rifles in competition, so that training was invaluable.”

The team, which was subsidised by an ADF Sports Council grant, contributed about $4500 each to make the trip and contested all championship events.

In the British National Cross Country Championships freestyle (modern skating race) over 10km for men and 7.5km for women, MAJ Filip Likar (DS Brisbane) was 48th of 151 starters in 41:03 and CAPT Kathy Zimmermann (22 Const Regt) was 18th of 47 in 37:55.

In the 15km/10km classic, the team skied more competitively. In the women’s 10km classic, SPR Emily Dutton was 11th of 34 starters in 45:07, and in the men’s 15km classic, MAJ Likar was 27th of 119 in 47:52.

The men’s and women’s 4 x 5km relay combines two skiers racing freestyle and two skiers racing classic.
The ADF women’s team of SPR Emily Dutton, SPR Annie Young, SGT Sonia Crockett and CAPT Kathy Zimmermann finished mid-table of the eight teams.

The men’s team of LT Dave Cave, MAJ Likar, SGT Carl Trindorfer and CPL Scott Malpass were 25th out of 28 teams.

SPR Dutton was seventh among the 32 starters in the women’s distance biathlon (skiing and shooting) 15km in 1:11.16. In the 10km biathlon mass start, she was 12th of the 33 competitors in 44.22, and in the women’s distance 15km, she was seventh out of 32 in 1:11.16.

MAJ Likar finished 32nd among the 142 who contested the men’s 10km biathlon sprint in 37.29. In the 12km biathlon mass start, he was 20th out of 68 in 1:03:31. In the distance 20km, he was 25th of 54 in 1:11:30.