Merino Muster X-Country Citizen ski race Saturday 17th August hosted by the Snow Farm, Cardrona, New Zealand
The race start was delayed by very poor visibility. The course had to be changed to an emergency course on a shortened loop. Warm conditions meant a soft surface, slow times and extra effort for the 42Kms skiers as they completed 4 loops. Race attendance was down due to the weather.
By the 4th loop our Polish super stars had broken clear of the leading group until even Justyna Kowaczyk had to accept Maciej was too strong.
1st place in the men’s 42Km went to Maciej Kreczmer of Poland, 2nd place went to Nicolas Aurillon of France and 3rd place to Erik Carleton of Canada and our own Andy Pohl was a very creditable 5th.
1st place in the ladies 42Km went to Justyna Kowalczyk for the third year, and our Olympian biathlete Sarah Murphy in her first ski marathon 2nd. Sarah was so excited at her placing that she ducked under a hoop from the mini merino course for fun as she was cheered over the finish line. Third place went to Kamila Borutova of the Czech Worldloppet team who has now headed to Australia to compete in our sister race “the Hoppet”.
The visiting Worldloppet Ski Federation inspector Mrs. Epp Paal decided to race and completed her 21km Snow Rake in 1st place for her age group. She fell in love with the Snow Farm in spite of our race weather and has offered a range of helpful ideas for race improvement.
Many of our loyal musterers competed despite the weather including Don Spary Arrowtown, our oldest competitor (81) continues to compete annually.
The full list of results can be found on the website www.merinomuster.com . The awards evening was held at the Cardrona Hotel who had provided a replica of the hotel as our finishing drinks station. What was served has to remain a X-Country ski secret!
At the awards evening a number of our younger Straggle Musterers’ received Sochi bears from the Russian sprint team. They are very prized symbols of the Sochi Winter Olympics.
John Burridge, Chairman of Merino Muster Ltd was keen to thank all of the volunteers who had to operate under the stressful conditions and to the ODT for the loan of tents and publicity around this unique NZ X-Country ski race.
Contributed by: Merino Muster
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