How will North American Skiers do at Worlds? How good are you at predicting results? Here is your chance at taking a stab at guessing the results for the cross country races at the Nordic Worlds in Oberstdorf, Germany that starts this week.
Cross country skiers have a shot at twelve gold medals, twelve silver and twelve bronze medals, for a total of 36 medals. Who will win? Let the speculation begin!
Norway’s goal is seven golds and USA is hoping for three medals — is that realistic? What about the Canadian men and women, can they step it up?
German skiers have dominated many of the men’s races this season, but showed a declining performance curve in the last couple World cup races. Will they be back in dominating style on the home course?
Sweden’s top male skiers have struggled with sickness, but showed strength in the last World Cup races. Will they peak for this championship? The Estonian men are always tough at championships, especially in classic.
Will Russian skiers come back after a couple meager seasons and crash the party?
Will it be Smigun, Bjorgen, Neuomannova, Kuenzel, Pedersen, Tchepalova or someone else in the women’s races?
Italy is preparing for next years home course Olympics and want results. Are they good enough for medals? Will Norwegian skiers dominate the classic sprint and the two-person sprint relays events?
Can American male sprinters advance from the prolog and have a shot at medals?
You tell us! Send us your comments and predictions ( info@fasterskier.com ). Make it as short or detailed as you want. We’ll post some predictions from our readers before each of the races and enter everyone in a competition for a few prizes.
The prize categories will be:
1. Predict medal winners (in order of finish) in each race. Please give the athletes' names for the individual races, Nations for the relays). You will get 10 points for guessing the winner correctly, 5 for getting second place correct, and 3 for third.
2. Guess the top North American in each race (Name and place). You will get 5 points for getting either the name or the place correctly. Ten points if you get both. For relays, tell us Nation (USA or Canada) and place.
The prices are donated by TorbjornSport, www.torbjornsport.com and are :
$75 worth of SOLDA Glide wax for first place in each category
A copy of the Perfect Skating CD-ROM for second place in each category.
And yes, it’s possible for one person to win both categories.
Rules: All of a person's picks must be hypothetically 'possible'. In other words, you can not chose the same person to finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Because if that person was to win, it would not be possible for them to also come in second. If someone does submit a list like that, we will only use their top placing for each different racer or team. For example, if they chose Norway to place 1st,2nd & 3rd in the relay, they will only score points if Norway wins (but not if Norway finishes second or third).
Email your comments and predictions to: info@fasterskier.com
http://www.oberstdorf2005.com/index.shtml?en_homepage
The competition schedule:
Feb 17, 2005
10 km Free Women
15 km Free Men
Feb 19, 2005
2×7.5 km Double Pursuit Women
2×15 km Double Pursuit Men
Feb 21, 2005
Relay 4×5 km Women
Feb 22, 2005
Sprint 1.2 km Classic Men & Women
Feb 24, 2005
Relay 4×10 km Men
Feb 25, 2005
6×1.2 km Free Team Sprint Women
6×1.2 km Free Team Sprint Men
Feb 26, 2005
30 km Classic Mass Start Women
Feb 27, 2005
50 km Classic Mass Start Men
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