Youth Cup: Large starting field kicks off winter in Harrachov

102 participants from 13 nations will welcome the Nordic Combined winter on the Youth Cup level at the Czech venue of Harrachov on the upcoming weekend. The competitions in Harrachov pick up the youth series that started with four summer events in Vuokatti, Finland and Oberstdorf, Germany.

„The Youth Cup in Harrachov had its premiere last year and all participants went home with a lot of excitement and good memories“, Czech Sports Director and former World Cup athlete Tomas Slavik says. „The competitions were a big success regarding the organisation, the event and weather conditions and so the International Ski Federation asked us to host the event also this year.“ In the absence of a Czech World Cup or Continental Cup event, the Youth Cup marks the biggest international Nordic Combined event on Czech soil in this winter season.

A total of 31 girls and 71 boys will fight for points in the newly introduced Youth Cup overall standings in two different age categories, spanning the ages from 13 to 18. Equipped with a new yellow Viessmann bib modelled on the World Cup, the respective leader will also be visually distinguished from the upcoming weekend onwards. The conditions offered by the organisers are great: the hills have been opened since mid-December and next to artificial snow, the tracks also got a fair amount of natural snow.

As it has become customary in the Nordic Combined Youth Cup, the first competition day will feature a longer Individual Gundersen event (jumping on the HS 73 hill, followed by a 7.5 km for the boys in the Youth II category, 5 km for boys Youth I and girls Youth II and 2.5 km for the girls Youth I category) while the second day has a „Sprint“ event with the distances of 5 km for all boys and 2.5 km for all girls.

The Nordic Combined Youth Cup will wrap up with two final events in Trondheim, Norway in March.