Beautiful weather and excellent track conditions made for an exciting day of racing at the Snow Farm in the first of a series of Australia-New Zealand Cup races for the 2010 racing season. On the men’s side, Canadian Devin Kershaw barely edged out USA’s Kris Freeman who lead most of the race but heeded to the Canadian in the final 500 meters. On the women’s side, Liz Stephen (USA) and teammate Morgan Arritola skied a strong race sharing the lead for most of the race until the spectacular photo-finish, placing Stephen on top of the podium.
New Zealand’s Koons duo showed they were prepared to battle the US and Canadian teams with a strong performance in 8th and 9th place.
Saturday’s race will be the 1.6km Skate Sprint, qualifying starting at 10am.