Huntly teenagers excel in Sweden

SKI coach Young predicts BEST SEASON

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HUNTLY duo Andrew Young and Callum Smith started the pre-Olympic cross-country season in style with impressive displays in Sweden.

The Great Britain Nordic ski team athletes, who are both 17, finished fifth and 12th respectively in the junior freestyle 15kilometre race in an international field of 50.

William Newman, 17, also from Huntly, broke his best time in the classic 1,700metre sprint.

Huntly’s Posy Musgrave, 24, and Sarah Young, 20, also stood up well in the face of international competition from senior women’s teams from Sweden, Latvia, China, Czech Republic, Canada, Poland, Spain and Norway.

Their 10km race included two World Cup winning athletes ahead of the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February.

Musgrave recorded the fastest British lap in the classic sprint race.

Huddersfield’s Fiona Hughes, who often trains at the roller ski tracks at Huntly Nordic and Outdoor Centre, won the junior women’s freestyle 10km race.

British Nordic Ski-ing coach Roy Young said: “I predict we will make sporting history this winter with the best season British Nordic Ski-ing has ever had.”

The next race is on Saturday in Beitostolen, Norway, where Britain’s number one cross-country skier Andrew Musgrave, 19, from Oyne, is competing in a World Cup race.