Czech training venues at Liberec come back to life
Pavel Churavy training at Vesec - Czech Ski Association
As the Czech Ski Association reports on their website, a new cooperation agreement has been signed between the city of Liberec, the sports complexes and the Ski Association regarding the ski jumping and cross-country training venues Jested and Vesec. The Czech athletes can now look forward to using the areas regularly for training and competition purposes.
„It has always been quite much speculation on where we will go for training. Now it is clear which is a great relief for us and also for the operators of the areas“, athlete Tomas Slavik says. „We can especially feel the change at the Jested venue. We did quite many jumps there this year and so far, it has been working out great.“
But not only the jumping hills but also the roller-skiing tracks prove to be a training paradise for the athletes. „Training in Liberec is ideal for us. Not only because it’s our home but let’s face it, there are maybe three resorts such as Vesec where you can train on roller-skis that well. For sure, the hills of Jested are not my favourites but they are great for training. We are very lucky.“
But it’s not only for training purposes that the two Czech venues at Liberec will be used in the not too distant future. First of all, the Czech national championships on the normal hill will be held on the third weekend in July and in September, the internationally open national championships on the big hill will also be held on Jested and will take place in conjunction with the summer championships of the cross-country skiers. „Members of our Ski Association have presented this plan at the FIS Congress in Barcelona and invited competitors from other countries. Maybe we will have a nice big race in the Czech Republic again“, training group coach Marek Sablatura hopes.
One nice big competition is definitely set to take place in early February of 2015: The Nordic Combined World Cup is set to return to Liberec. Marek Sablatura is happy with this development: „For the guys it’s great to have this motivation.“
While being happy about a home competition, team veteran Tomas Slavik does not think that knowledge of the local facilities will help in the competition. „I have been touring the World Cup for 10 years now and we more or less went to the same places, so I think I have trained a lot everywhere“, the 33-year-old laughs. „But it’s great to be back home after quite some time. I love to compete in the Czech Republic and hope that the fans will come to see us.“
