Biathletes are made in summer, the saying goes and for Darcie Morton 2019 was the time to test it out.

Instead of being in Australia and training and racing on-snow, Darcie spent 3 months with the Austrian Club St Jakob Rosental, run by Austrian World Cup athlete Daniel Mesotitsch and his family.  

Darcie left Australia on 18 June 2019 flying into Munich and then onto the small town of St Jakob Rosental, which is on the border of Austria and Slovenia as well as being close to Italy. The town is an excellent base for summer biathlon training with mountains for hiking and mountain bike riding, lakes for swimming and roads for running and roller-skiing.

“I found the summer training really beneficial and was able to keep up a large training load across a variety of sports and in the company of great people. While primarily based in St Jakob Rosental, we also had multiple training camps in Poklijuka in Slovenia and Hochfilzen and Obertilliach, which are both in Austria.

Training also included intensive testing and it was great to be able to roller-ski and shoot on the bitumen summer trails at the Ranges, which I normally see covered in snow!”

Darcie finished her Austrian training competing at the Austrian Roller-Ski Championships where she picked up a handy podium placing in the Pursuit. Darice is now back in Australia and will complete her University exams and practical assessments, before heading off the Europe again around mid-November.

Good luck Darice and we hope your summer training camp brings you great success this upcoming winter in Europe.