The Nordic World Championship starts today with the women’s 10-kilometer and men’s 15-kilometer freestyle races. Here are the top bookmaker odds and basic “must know†knowledge on the term exotic World Championship skier.
British oddsmaker Ladbrokes are giving the following odds on the women’s and men’s races:
Source: Langrenn.com
Women: The fight for gold should be between Katerina Neumanova, Julia Tchepalova and Kristina Smigun. These three have for that reason the lowest odds.
Neumanova has 3.5 in odds ($1 bet will pay $3.50 if she wins), Tshepalova 4.0 and Smigun 7.0. Last weeks first and second place finishers from Reit im Winkl Evgenia Medvedeva-Abruzova and Olga Savialova has odds of 10 and 8.
Langrenn.com points out the fact that the last race before a championship often has strange results and that those who are best in the last race not always are best a week later. They don’t believe that last week’s winner and runner up will fight for gold.
– We believe that Smigun will win and Neumanova and Tchepalova will fight for second, says Lanrenn.com
Odds on other women: M. Bjorgen 7.0, G. Paruzzi 26.0, K.Steira 34.0, and P.Majdic 81.0
The men’s race:
We believe in four skiers: Axel Teichman, Rene Sommerfelt, Christian Hoffman and Tore Ruud Hofstad.
Teichmann; Showed before Christmas that he was the Worlds best skier. He has not skied as fast after Christmas, but we think this was part of the plan. They wanted to ski fast before Christmas, but only Worlds counts after Christmas. We believe that he is in control and can fight for gold. It’s uncertainty surrounding reports that he has a cold, but he has not had fewer. He is a gold medal candidate at nice odds of 13.0
Sommerfelt: He has won the overall World cup, he might be the best freestyle skier in the World. The odds are 7.0 No one can beat him if it clicks for Rene.
Hoffman is Ladbrokes biggest favorite at odds 5.0. The reason for this is that this is a championship, its skating and individual start.
Ruud Hofstad: Has not been fighting in the top this year, but we believe he can step it up. He has proven himself as a championship skier in the past. It’s his favorite distance. Odds 17.0.
Other Ladbrokes Favorites: Vittoz at 6.0, Tobias Angerer 9.0, Georgio Di Centa 10.0, but Langrenn.com doesn’t believe that they can fight for gold.
Odds on other men: L.Bauer 13, M.Fredriksson 13, M.Bajcicak (last weeks World Cup winner) 15.0, Lars Berger (Worlds fastest biathlon skier?) 15.0, O.E. Bjorndalen (Worlds most successful biathlon skier) 21.0
Fasterskier.com editorial longs shot by Torbjorn Karlsen (just for fun):
My long shot tip for those who want to “spend it all and win a lot or nothing at allâ€: Martin Koukal at odds 41. I looked at splits from the 15-kilometer in Reit im Winkl, 5 days ago and noted that Martin was among the leaders for 10-kilometer and ended up in 9th place only 39 seconds behind the winner. He won the 50-kilometer skate at Worlds in 2003 and skating is his thing. He has one chance to do well at this championship at that’s in the 15-kilomer. That it, Worlds is over for him after this race. $1 will give $41 (but you might be better off by only doing a mental bet)
Exotic skiers
There are a record 125 skiers in the men’s race and 75 skiers in the women’s race. 39 of the skiers in the men’s race and 15 of the skiers in the women’s race are by FIS classified as exotic skiers.
This term describes skiers without the necessary FIS point to race, however granted permission to race as representatives for their countries in order to broaden World wide interest for the sport. Exotic skiers usually get one start. It looks like this year’s exotic skiers bonanza is the opening race. Exotic skiers are usually seeded last to not interfere with qualified racers. Example of exotic skiers countries: Brazil, Bosnia, Argentina, Ireland, Israel, Belgium, and Mongolia.
