Norwegian cross country sport chief Bjornar Hakensmoen want the sport to utilize today’s competition forms better. He wants more weight put on good course profiles and the width of the tracks, especially in mass-start events.
Source: Langrenn.com — Translated by Torbjorn Karlsen
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<p>– I think cross country skiing needs to utilize today’s competition forms better. The sport has emphasized creating a nice product that gives good television events. The sport has become interesting. Next is to come up with good organizers with good wide courses and excellent course profiles, says Hakensmoen.</p>
<p>– Mass-start is exciting when someone takes off and others are starting to hunt them down. We need to focus on that instead of changing the rules. The organizers of pursuits and mass-start races have to be able to provide wide and tough courses so that you get gaps between the racers, explains Hakensmoen whom want to compare this to the mountain stages in Tour de France.</p>
<p>– It was exciting the entire time on the stage up to Courchevel. You wondered who was going to win, who was going to be able to hang on and who would get dropped. The last 15-20-kilometers were very exciting. My main point is to improve the quality of the track’s profile, width and course length. That’s the way to make it exciting. It’s a lot more exciting to have races like this Tour de France stage than to see 50 racers approach the finish together. More weight put on the course can prevent boring mass-start events, explains Hakensmoen.</p>
<p>– That way we can prevent 50-kilometer races like we had at the 2005 Worlds, which wasn’t exciting for television before the last few meters, says Hakensmoen</p>
<p>The same goes for sprint. It’s important to find good sprint courses. We want dramatic races, but we should also put great weight on showing who the best sprinter is is, concludes Hakensmoen.</p>
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