Originally scheduled for 29th January- 4th February but postponed due to a lack of snow, the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships and under-23 Cross-Country Championships in Tarvisio (ITA) will begin next Monday, 12th March. 60 medals will be awarded in the course of seven days until 18th March as a total of 14 events in Cross-Country (eight for the juniors and six in the under-23 category), three in Ski Jumping and three in Nordic Combined will be held. More than 700 athletes representing some 35 nations are expected to participate. Team Norway will be defending the Marc Hodler Trophy awarded to the most successful nation each year. Norway claimed the Trophy both in 2005 and 2006.
The host of the 2003 Winter Universiade and the 2002 FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships, Tarvisio is highly experienced to stage the 2007 Junior and U-23 World Championships, the largest event in the FIS Nordic disciplines after the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.
“The organizing committee has been working very hard to deliver the event according to the original schedule. This winter has been challenging all around and Tarvisio is no exception,†commented Peter Gerdol, General Secretary of the organizing committee. “Due to the limited amount of snow, we have moved the Cross-Country competitions to the area around Fusine lakes, at an altitude of 1000m, instead of the Gabriella Paruzzi ski stadium in Tarvisio proper as planned. Since there is no existing stadium infrastructure there, we are in the process of building temporary facilities for timing, waxing and such. Thanks to a much-appreciated offer by our friends at the Slovenian Ski Association, the Ski Jumping competitions will be held on the K-90 Ski Jumping hill at Planica, which is located just eight kilometres from the Fusine Cross-Country area and some 16 km from Tarvisio. We are doing our very best and with the strong support by the very same team that delivered the FIS Alpine World Cup races last weekend as well as with some weather luck in the next couple of days, we will see great competitions here in Tarvisio.â€
Source: FIS
Here is a report from the US Team from Coach Amy Caldwell:
The majority of the US team has now made it to Tarvisio. A few of the NCAA skiers and Laura Valaas are coming in on the 11th. So far things have gone extremely smoothly. Matt Whitcomb and Pat Casey and the rest of the US Ski Team staff have done a great job with all of the logistics and making everyone feel right at home.
Tarvisio is a great little ski village located in the northeast corner of Italy. It is only a few miles away from Slovenia and Germany. The weather here has been in the 40s and it has been raining the last two days. They have had to move the race venue to a nearby valley which is tucked underneath a huge mountain called Mt. Mangart. We have not been allowed to ski on those courses yet, but we were able to train in another nearby valley called Val Saisera which was very easy skiing and
incredibly beautiful. I will send some pictures as soon as the weather is clear enough to see anything.
