China stages first FIS Cross-Country City Sprint of the season
Dec 20, 2019·Cross-Country
China carried out the first two-FIS Cross Country China City Sprint competitions of the season with a total of 104 athletes from 14 countries. The host venues on the 15th and 17th December were the Olympic Centre in Tianjin and the Huanglong Stadium in Hangzhou.
The most successful team during the two days was the Russian team with Natalia Matveeva and Andrey Parfenov both winning all the competitions. Matveeva ; Evgenia Shapovalova (RUS) and Jackline Lockner (SWE) were the top three overall women winners; Parfenov; Erik Silfver (SWE) and Kornelius Groev (NOR) the top three overall men winners
Both competitions were broadcast live and the initial statistics indicated a total 70+ million people have watched the races on TV, in addition to ten thousand spectators who enjoyed the competitions on site.
On 12th December - three days before the competition in Tianjin - the sixth China National Ice and Snow Season opened right next to city sprint venue.
Hangzhou, located in the south of China, hosted the region’s very first international snow sports competition in the south part of the country. This major event marks one critical steps towards fulfilling the ambition of “300 million participating winter sports” set by the Chinese Government which particularly aims to engage youngsters.
“City sprints are showing the great desire of people in South China to contribute to the success of Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and winter sports development”, said Huizhong Ni, President of the Chinese Ski Association, at the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou competition.
The Chinese Ski Association, Organisers of the city sprints have planned the second China City Sprint tour event series during the last 10 days of March 2020, in Beijing and Shanghai.
