World Championship Wrap Up From The Race Organizers

Source: Official Oberstdorf Worlds web site at http://www.oberstdorf2005.com/index.shtml?en_homepage

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Winter wonderland
Snow, snow and even more snow. It does not happen very often that such an amount of that white grandeur causes so few problems. “Here you really notice that we’ve got winter”, described FIS president Gian Franco Kasper the beautiful winter scenery of the Allgäu when he arrived in Oberstdorf. Hundreds of volunteers had worked day and night to prepare the ski jumping hills and cross-country tracks perfectly. “Once again Petrus has proved to be an Oberstdorfer”, states the OC president and mayor of Oberstdorf, Thomas Müller.

Wave of flu
However, the winter wonderland in the Allgäu did not do the German DSV team any good as almost all of them caught a cold. Although, everyone of them was isolated after the first sneeze, the flu made his way from discipline to discipline. Apparently, the flu was introduced by the cross-country skiers. While the protégés of Jochen Behle slowly got over it, the ski jumpers struggled very much. But not only the famous patients such as Teichmann, Künzel, Späth, Schmitt and Kircheisen had to suffer, there were also ‘victims’ among the 1,500 volunteers.