Source: Langrenn.com
There is no secret that FIS wants skiers who can do well in both sprint and distance events. Competition director Jurg Capol is therefore toying with new ideas that might make it more attractive for skiers to train for both sprint and distance racing.
Combi-Competition weekends means that racers will get World Cup points for the combined ranking of a sprint and a distance race in the same weekend says Capol in an email to Langrenn.com.
This means that the different nations will get a combined quota for this weekend where all the racers have to participate in both the sprint and the distance race. The skiers placing in the sprint and the distance race will be added together (i.e. a first and an eleventh place will give 1 + 11 for a total of 12 and two fifth places will add up to 10). The racer with the lowest total has won the combination and will get 100 extra points in the overall World Cup. The top 30 will get World Cup points.
Capol makes it clear that at this point this is just an idea.
Langrenn.com asked Norwegian sprint coach Ulf Morten Aune what he thought about it:
– I support making such an event 110%, said Aune
New Norwegian chief of sport Age Skinstad was also supportive as long as it’s thoroughly tested and evaluated along with other possible changes before it becomes a World Cup event.
