Ski Orienteering World Cup: upcoming races in Norway and Sweden
Posted on | January 16, 2014 | Category: News
The second round of the 2013-2014 Ski Orienteering World Cup uses two venues – Hamar in Norway, where the World Ski Orienteering Championships will be held in 2015, and Orsa Grönklitt in Sweden. There are six races in all, two in Norway and four in Sweden.
It is a demanding programme in store for the athletes over a period of nine days overall. Around 100 competitors from at least 15 nations are expected to take part. The highest-placed home runners in the World Cup standings are currently Tove Alexandersson, Sweden, second equal in the women’s list, and the Norwegian Lars Hol Moholdt who is second-placed in the men’s. Alexandersson is 54 points down on the Russian Tatyana Rvacheva, but Moholdt is only 14 points away from the leader Andrei Lamov and will be focussed on getting up into the lead this week. Hans Jørgen Kvåle, Norway and Peter Arnesson, Sweden are also well-placed in the standings and will be looking for top results.
A Middle distance race with mass start and a Sprint race are scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday with the finish at Gåsbu Ski Arena, 15 km from Hamar which itself is 90 km north of Oslo. There is plenty of fresh snow in the area and conditions should be good in the terrain of mixed forest with open marshes, moderately hilly, at an altitude of 500-600 m.
Team members will have a one-off opportunity on Monday to train in some of the terrain to be used for the 2015 World Championships at Budor, east of Hamar, and then will travel eastwards to Orsa Grönklitt, 20 km north of Mora in central Sweden.
On Wednesday the competitions start again with a Middle distance race, and the following day there will be a Sprint prologue and Shortened Middle distance chasing start (counted as one World Cup competition for point awards purposes). Friday is a rest day, and those present will have the opportunity of a guided tour of Europe’s biggest bear park which is situated at Orsa Grönklitt.
The final two races in this round are a Relay on Saturday 25th January and a Long distance individual race the following day.
Alongside the World Cup races there will be open competitions for seniors and juniors, and a 3-day IOF Event Advisers and Organisers Clinic at Orsa Grönklitt led by Juraj Nemec, Slovakia.
Reports and feature articles, leading results and photographs will appear on this website after each race, and there will be live coverage on the event websites, accessed via the SkiO World Cup logo on the right-hand side of this Home Page.
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