Big weekends in Klingenthal and Harrachov coming up

Even though the cancellation of Otepää (EST) forced the World Cup athletes to rest a bit more after Christmas, it does not mean that there is no Nordic Combined action on the upcoming weekend.

The Continental Cup has its next stop with three more competitions in Klingenthal, Germany and the Youth Cup will have the first of two winter stops in Harrachov in the Czech Republic.

73 athletes from eighteen nations will start in the first of three events of the weekend in Klingenthal, where the organisers were able to prepare the HS 140 large hill in the Vogtlandarena and the cross-country tracks in Mühlleithen with artificial and natural snow. The conditions are not only great for the athletes, also visitors can enjoy a network of 15 km of cross-country tracks and ski lifts are in operation. On Friday, a shorter 5 km event is on schedule and on Saturday and Sunday, two normal 10 km Individual Gundersen events will take place.

Some well-known World Cup names are on the entry list: Switzerland's Tim Hug, Frenchmen Maxime Laheurte, Francois Braud and Antoine Gerard, Austrians Martin Fritz, Franz-Josef Rehl and Bernhard Flaschberger and Russia’s Ernest Yahin. Travelling to Klingenthal will be also Poland’s Adam Cieslar, Szcepan Kupczak and Pawel Slowiok, Norwegian Espen Bjørnstad, who already had good results in Lillehammer, as well as Steamboat Springs podium athletes Truls Johansen and Hugo Buffard. After the cancellation of their home World Cup, the full Estonian team also elected to go to Klingenthal.

Entry to the cross-country events is free, for the ski jumping round, the visitors will need to buy tickets. VSC Klingenthal Vice President Markus Stark has a special tip: “Everybody who has already bought a ticket for the World Cup in March has free entry to all Continental Cup events this weekend. It might be worth getting the World Cup ticket already now, benefit from a 5 Euro early bird discount and get free entry for the Continental Cup on top.” Tickets are available in the Vogtlandarena and online at www.weltcup-klingenthal.de.

The program

Thursday, 4.1.2018 
10.00  Official Jumping Training (Sparkasse Vogtland Arena)  
14.00  Offizielles Cross-Country – Skistadion Mühlleithen

Friday, 5.1.2018 
10.00  Trial Round (Sparkasse Vogtland Arena) 
11.00  Competition Round (Sparkasse Vogtland Arena)  
14.00  5 km Cross-Country Race – Skistadion Mühlleithen

Saturday, 6.1.2018 
10.00  Trial Round (Sparkasse Vogtland Arena) 
11.00  Competition Round (Sparkasse Vogtland Arena)  
14.00  10 km Cross-Country Race – Skistadion Mühlleithen

Sunday, 7.1.2018
09.00  Trial Round (Sparkasse Vogtland Arena) 
10.00  Competition Round(Sparkasse Vogtland Arena)  
13.00  10 km Cross-Country Race – Skistadion Mühlleithen

Even though the Ladies’ Continental Cup start had to be postponed to Rena in mid-January, the ladies of the discipline are in action on the upcoming weekend. Almost 100 athletes from ten nations, 64 boys and 32 girls, are entered for the Youth Cup events in Harrachov.

While the ladies and the younger boys compete on the HS 73 hill, the older boys will jump from the HS 100 normal hill. The skiing distances are 2.5 and 5 km for the younger boys and ladies and 5 and 7.5 km for the older boys with the shorter distances being raced on Sunday and the longer ones on Saturday.

The program

Friday, 5.1.2018 
10.00  Free Training SJ HS73, HS 100
13.00  Free Training XC

Saturday, 6.1.2018

8.30  Official Training HS 73 2 rounds (Boys I, Girls I & II)

10.00  Trial Round

followed by  Competition Round

11.15  Official Training HS 100 2 rounds (Boys II) 
12.15  Trial Round  
followed by  Competition Round

15:00  Boys XC Race Youth I 4 km, Youth II 7.5 km 
followed by  Girls XC Race Youth I 5 km, Youth II 5 km

Sunday, 7.1.2018

8.30  Trial Round HS 73 (Boys I, Girls I & II)

followed by  Competition Round

10.00  Trial Round HS 100 (Boys II) 
followed by  Competition Round

13:00  Boys XC Race Youth I 2.5 km, Youth II 5 km 
followed by  Girls XC Race Youth I 2.5 km, Youth II 2.5 km