In the longest distance, Kris Yip and Jacqui Benson were the quickest.
In Sunday's Caledonia Loppet cross-country ski race at Otway Nordic Centre, Yip and Benson completed 30 kilometres in ideal conditions and reached the finish line at the front of the pack.
Yip, entered in the male mass start freestyle race for athletes born in 1993 or earlier, finished in a time of one hour 25 minutes 26.6 seconds. That placed him more than a minute ahead of the runner-up in the group, Arthur Roots, who clocked in at 1:26:31.9. Willard Andal was third in 1:30:02.3.
In the female mass start freestyle race for the same age category, Benson led the way in 1:28:24.3. Nikki Kassel (1:28:25.4) and Shar Jackson (1:28:33.5) were second and third respectively.
Other 30km winners were as follows: Patrick Turner (male mass start freestyle, 1952-1971) 1:26:10.1; Angela Wheeler (female mass start freestyle, 1952-1971) 1:48:49.6; Lauri Karjaluoto (male mass start freestyle, 1951 and earlier) 1:38:22.0; John Bowes (male mass start classic 1993 and earlier) 1:46:18.6; and Abby Lewis (female mass start classic 1993 and earlier) 2:14:09.0.
In the 15km distance, the one competitive category was the female mass start classic for skiers born in 1993 or earlier. Jacqui Pettersen won the race in a time of 53:39.6, ahead of Sage Bialuski (55:54.8) and Holley Yorston (1:16:43.8).
Other first-place finishers in various categories were Jacob Hoskins, Alison Hoskins, Sadie Bialuski, Damian Georgyev, Ariadne Douglas, Kian Draper, Philip Rice, Kaia Andal, Tara Klassen and Rob Vogt.
