International Ski Federation - Kuusamo, Finland
- - The wait is over! From this weekend on it will
be all about races, results, points and podiums
again for the elite of the Nordic Combined athletes
when their season kicks off in Kuusamo, Finland
again.
The winter season, peppered with highlights like
the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi and the Nordic
Combined Triple in Seefeld, will have a flying start
near the Finnish polar circle where the fortitude
of the athletes will be tested to the maximum right
at the beginning. Known for often difficult conditions
and extreme cold, Ruka's HS 142 Rukatunturi hill
will demand the utmost of concentration and a tough
cross-country course a maximum of stamina - the
perfect venue to find out who is among the best
of the ultimate winter athletes of Nordic Combined!
All three disciplines are gathered together in
Ruka, a small ski resort about 30 kilometres away
from Kuusamo which offers alpine slopes but also
two ski jumping hills and many cross-country tracks
only a 5-minute walk from the cosy village centre.
As this is the season opening, the first competitions
will be mostly about getting a feeling for the level
of performance required in this Olympic winter and
to see how the competition is doing. Big names like
Eric Frenzel and Jason Lamy Chappuis will certainly
be the standard that everyone is comparing to. But
as we know, the sport always writes its own stories.
We certainly can't wait for the first chapter in
the book of 2013/14.
Program (local times! CET -1h)
Friday, 29.11.
10:00 Official training HS 142
12:00 Provisional Competition Round/Qualification
15:30 Official training cross-country
Saturday, 30.11.
08:45 Trial Round HS 142
09:45 TEAM EVENT Competition Round HS 142
14:30 TEAM EVENT 4 x 5 km cross-country race
