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Nordic World Ski Championship

Feb 12, 2010
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All right, thought I'd kick off this thread as no one else has done so and the sprint finals have allready started. I guess the thread will die quite quickly like the cricket one shold there be no interest, allthough judging by the clinic thread there should be some.

This years venue is Holmenkollen, Oslo

Programme, as seen at http://www.oslo2011.no/en/programme/

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Thursday 24 February
13:30 Cross-Country: Individual Sprint free qualification Ladies and Men
15:00 Cross-Country: Individual Sprint free finals Ladies and Men

Friday 25 February
12:30 Ski Jumping: Normal Hill (HS 106) Qualification Men
15:00 Ski Jumping: Normal Hill (HS 106) Individual Ladies

Saturday 26 February
10:00 Nordic Combined: Individual Normal Hill (HS 106)
11:30 Cross-Country: 15 km Pursuit Ladies
13:00 Nordic Combined: Individual NH/Gundersen 10 km
15:00 Ski Jumping: Normal Hill (HS 106) Individual Men

Sunday 27 February
12:00 Cross-Country: 30 km Pursuit Men
15:00 Ski Jumping: Normal Hill (HS 106) Team Men

Monday 28 February
11:30 Nordic Combined: Team Normal Hill (HS 106)
13:00 Cross-Country: 10 km Individual classic Ladies
15:00 Nordic Combined: Team NH/4 x 5 km

Tuesday 1 March
13:00 Cross-Country: 15 km Individual classic Men

Wednesday 2 March
11:00 Nordic Combined: Individual Large Hill (HS 134)
12:15 Cross-Country: Team Sprint classic qualification Ladies and Men
14:15 Cross-Country: Team Sprint classic finals Ladies and Men
16:00 Nordic Combined: Individual LH/ Gundersen 10 km
18:00 Ski Jumping: Large Hill (HS 134) Qualification Men

Thursday 3 March
14:00 Cross-Country: 4 x 5 km Relay Ladies
17:00 Ski Jumping: Large Hill (HS 134) Individual Men

Friday 4 March
11:30 Nordic Combined: Team Large Hill (HS 134)
12:45 Cross-Country: 4 x 10 km Relay Men
16:00 Nordic Combined: Team LH/4 x 5 km

Saturday 5 March
12:00 Cross-Country: 30 km Mass Start free Ladies
15:30 Ski Jumping: Large Hill (HS 134) Team Men

Sunday 6 March
13:00 Cross-Country: 50 km Mass Start free Men
 
Mar 18, 2009
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Nice. I will watch as much as I can on TV ;)

We talked about driving up and parking about an hour's walk from Holmenkollen and watching the 15K or the 30K along the route somewhere...but honestly it's easier with the telly these days.

I'll be downtown tomorrow...wonder if the traffic will be effected?
 
Feb 12, 2010
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Randall and Brun-Lie out with mishaps in heat three, Randall obviously the biggest loss in terms of field quality later on. (Not saying they would have made it without the mishaps)
 
Feb 12, 2010
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flyor64 said:
Nice. I will watch as much as I can on TV ;)

We talked about driving up and parking about an hour's walk from Holmenkollen and watching the 15K or the 30K along the route somewhere...but honestly it's easier with the telly these days.

I'll be downtown tomorrow...wonder if the traffic will be effected?

You should go atleast one day, in my humble opinion a world championship in 'kollen is as big as it gets. It might not have the best viewing location, (unfamiliar with the route network), but I'm sure it'll be worth it. I remember being at the stadium in '97 when Alsgaard came in, the best sporting moment in my life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBHOHCdLjGY
 
Mar 18, 2009
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cartman said:
You should go atleast one day, in my humble opinion a world championship in 'kollen is as big as it gets. It might not have the best viewing location, (unfamiliar with the route network), but I'm sure it'll be worth it. I remember being at the stadium in '97 when Alsgaard came in, the best sporting moment in my life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBHOHCdLjGY

This is true...I've got my 4 month old all weekend the final weekend...so my only option is this weekend. Perhaps we'll make the trek and give it a shot.
 
Mar 18, 2009
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cartman said:
Randall and Brun-Lie out with mishaps in heat three, Randall obviously the biggest loss in terms of field quality later on. (Not saying they would have made it without the mishaps)

Randall won in Konnerud didn't she? She looked really strong...although it was a slight uphill finish...could've played to her strengths (don't know her that well).
 
Feb 12, 2010
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flyor64 said:
This is true...I've got my 4 month old all weekend the final weekend...so my only option is this weekend. Perhaps we'll make the trek and give it a shot.

Congratulations. Well, you could watch any of the normal hill jumps in midtstubakken, think I read that there were tickets available, allthough tickets seem to be bloody expensive this world championship. Sitting in the woods watching is often a family activity, not for 4 month olds though :p
 
Feb 12, 2010
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flyor64 said:
Randall won in Konnerud didn't she? She looked really strong...although it was a slight uphill finish...could've played to her strengths (don't know her that well).

Don't know her that well either, but yeah she won in Drammen less than a week ago, shame that she's out allready. Norway doing quite poorly at the moment, had 3 of the 4 best in the womens prologue and it seemed quite rosy, Bjørgen through though. On the mens side Gløersen and Brandsdal out of the norwegian favourites, Northug and Hattestad through. The swedes look strong, hope they do a good race.
 
Mar 18, 2009
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cartman said:
Don't know her that well either, but yeah she won in Drammen less than a week ago, shame that she's out allready. Norway doing quite poorly at the moment, had 3 of the 4 best in the womens prologue and it seemed quite rosy, Bjørgen through though. On the mens side Gløersen and Brandsdal out of the norwegian favourites, Northug and Hattestad through. The swedes look strong, hope they do a good race.

Jepp the Swedes were very impressive last weekend...I'm not watching what you're watching today, but I'd imagine they'll have a few in the final.

If the finish straight is flat...not sure if that plays to Northug's strengths or not. I was impressed by his finishing last week though against the true sprinters. He is an amazing skier :D

Marit looked really good Sunday as well. That was an extremely tight finish to fill out 3rd on the podium...I think she's in with a chance (no bias here at all...I swear)

I just found out that my wife did not set the PVR before going out today...
 
Mar 18, 2009
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I just realized that with Het Volk and K-B-K this weekend, I will have some duelling priorities...PVR and plugging my ears/not reading this site this weekend...
 
Feb 12, 2010
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flyor64 said:
Jepp the Swedes were very impressive last weekend...I'm not watching what you're watching today, but I'd imagine they'll have a few in the final.

If the finish straight is flat...not sure if that plays to Northug's strengths or not. I was impressed by his finishing last week though against the true sprinters. He is an amazing skier :D

Marit looked really good Sunday as well. That was an extremely tight finish to fill out 3rd on the podium...I think she's in with a chance (no bias here at all...I swear)

I just found out that my wife did not set the PVR before going out today...

Yeah, both Northug, Hattestad and Bjørgen has a good chance, short and narrow finish straight.

On the bold part, don't worry, you'll hear enough about it, especially if Norway does well.
 
Feb 12, 2010
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Modin, Hellner, Jönsson, Northug, Hattestad and Kummel for the men.
Bjørgen, Majdic, Follis, Kowalczyk, Fabjan and Prochazkova for the women.
 
Feb 12, 2010
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*Spoiler if you intend to watch this later*

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Bjørgen extremely strong winning the womens final, Hellner unral in the mens final, extremely strong, started hard up the hill and held it all the way home. Northug demolishing Jönsson in the sprint for second, very good speed in him. Good to live in an era with runners like Hellner and Northug showing they master more than one distance. I know who I'll pick though if Norway and Sweden meet for a sprint in the relay though :p
 
Feb 12, 2010
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flyor64 said:
I just realized that with Het Volk and K-B-K this weekend, I will have some duelling priorities...PVR and plugging my ears/not reading this site this weekend...

Yeah, tough spot that, you'll have to sacrifice seeing that live if you want to be outdoors, watching people on wooden planks running around. :p
 
I do love XC and Nordic Combined, and I do love Holmenkollen. I'm not much of a fan of the sprint format though - much prefer mass starts/pursuits et al.

The overlap with the Biathlon world championships from Khantiy-Mansiysk may hurt my ability to follow Holmenkollen though - only so much time in the day.
 
Feb 12, 2010
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Libertine Seguros said:
I do love XC and Nordic Combined, and I do love Holmenkollen. I'm not much of a fan of the sprint format though - much prefer mass starts/pursuits et al.

The overlap with the Biathlon world championships from Khantiy-Mansiysk may hurt my ability to follow Holmenkollen though - only so much time in the day.

I do like the sprint format, the more skiing the better. But it's still the least prestigious event in the cross country disciplines with the exception of team sprint (imo) for a reason. Damn, I'd kill to win the 5 mile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian/Swedish_mil) in Holmenkollen, obviously 50 km and the men's relay are the biggest events, but also the 15 km(10km) and 15(7,5)+15(7,5) km I feel are more fun to watch than the sprint.

I do think they've gone somewhat overboard with the mass start in the later years, I do like it, prefer it perhaps, but there hasn't been that much individual starts in the big championships the last years which I feel is where some of the soul of skiing lies. Do also note however that pursuit in XC-skiing is not the same as it is in biathlon, in CX it's a mass start with technique change at the halfway point (and also equipment change), while in biathlon this is obviously not the case. I can't see I find the biathlon pursuit used in the olympic events to be particularly fair, but that's another topic.

On the subject of biathlon though, Norway's third man at the relay is likely going to be Emil Hegle Svendsen. Not the first time a biathlete has been used in such capacity as you probably know. Lars Berger was man number three Norway's gold winning team in both the 2005 and 2007 championships, in addition to being there in the silver winning squad for Vancouver. In fact he also got a (lucky) gold from the 15 km in Sapporo.

The biathlon world championship starts at march 3rd while the men's relay is the 4th, on wikipedia the biathlon men's spring is scheduled for the 4th, while I'm pretty sure I've read the 5th elsewhere. Time is going to be tight so they have a private plane to fly him to Russia to do the sprint, hope it works out. Last day of the nordic WC is the 6th, so there shouldn't be that much overlap.

I've noticed you're in to nordic combined which is cool, the racing is usually very good, the last two seasons especially have been very fun, sadly I haven't had time to watch as many races this year as I'd wished. Shame it's a relatively small sport, the concept is very cool and should honestly attract more people than it does. In general, slow skier jumps long, fast skier jumps short, slow guys start first, fast guys try to catch up before the finish line.

Jesus this got long, I was thinking anyway that this thread could transition into a thread about the world championships in biathlon and ski flying when these events start if interest warrants it.
 
Mar 18, 2009
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Libertine Seguros said:
I do love XC and Nordic Combined, and I do love Holmenkollen. I'm not much of a fan of the sprint format though - much prefer mass starts/pursuits et al.

The overlap with the Biathlon world championships from Khantiy-Mansiysk may hurt my ability to follow Holmenkollen though - only so much time in the day.

I am a fan of nordic combined as well. For many reasons, but the fact that they have to master two very different disciplines just boggles my mind...

cartman said:
...Jesus this got long, I was thinking anyway that this thread could transition into a thread about the world championships in biathlon and ski flying when these events start if interest warrants it.

Long, but well informed. In perfect english I might add :D

It´d be cool if we got another thread going...but alas, the Classics are upon us and the interest will quiet down I think...

Not for us though, with a meter plus of snow on the ground we have weeks, if not months, of good skiing in front of us. :D

skål!
 
cartman said:
I do think they've gone somewhat overboard with the mass start in the later years, I do like it, prefer it perhaps, but there hasn't been that much individual starts in the big championships the last years which I feel is where some of the soul of skiing lies. Do also note however that pursuit in XC-skiing is not the same as it is in biathlon, in CX it's a mass start with technique change at the halfway point (and also equipment change), while in biathlon this is obviously not the case. I can't see I find the biathlon pursuit used in the olympic events to be particularly fair, but that's another topic.
Well, tbh I would think the biathlon pursuit to be fairer if the sprint didn't also pay medals. A bit like in motorsports, the sprint sets the grid as it were. Then it would be a bit of a combined event. Kuzmina and Neuner being 1-2 in the Olympic sprint and with such a clear distance made them obvious favourites to go 1-2 in the pursuit too, which doubles up your medal count slightly artificially (I still won't take back my complaints about that sportspeople of the year poll where Lindsay Vonn was 2nd, Maria Riesch 7th, and Neuner not even mentioned, mind).

On the subject of biathlon though, Norway's third man at the relay is likely going to be Emil Hegle Svendsen. Not the first time a biathlete has been used in such capacity as you probably know. Lars Berger was man number three Norway's gold winning team in both the 2005 and 2007 championships, in addition to being there in the silver winning squad for Vancouver. In fact he also got a (lucky) gold from the 15 km in Sapporo.
Yea, I've seen biathletes used in relay a few times. Most recently Lars Berger of course, and Miriam Gößner for the Germans too, though to be fair Germany are relatively weak at XC, which seems strange considering their passion for biathlon and tendency to produce great skiers who are very inconsistent with the rifle. I'm just surprised at them taking somebody as high profile for biathlon as Emil, for reasons you outline below.

The biathlon world championship starts at march 3rd while the men's relay is the 4th, on wikipedia the biathlon men's spring is scheduled for the 4th, while I'm pretty sure I've read the 5th elsewhere. Time is going to be tight so they have a private plane to fly him to Russia to do the sprint, hope it works out. Last day of the nordic WC is the 6th, so there shouldn't be that much overlap.
No, you're right, there isn't too much overlap. I was rather concerned over nothing to tell the truth - I was concerned that as they tend to put the biggest events near the end of the event, I'd either miss some biathlon events (near unthinkable) or the biggest events of the Nordics (annoying).

I've noticed you're in to nordic combined which is cool, the racing is usually very good, the last two seasons especially have been very fun, sadly I haven't had time to watch as many races this year as I'd wished. Shame it's a relatively small sport, the concept is very cool and should honestly attract more people than it does. In general, slow skier jumps long, fast skier jumps short, slow guys start first, fast guys try to catch up before the finish line.
I think the problem NC faces is that a) the Gundersen being the only format most of the time means that the ski jump portion of the event is often not broadcast, and there's some opinion that it's basically an XC race with a staggered start. Jason Lamy Chappuis is of course doing his best to change that. The mastery of wildly differing disciplines is pretty impressive, but the fans watching at home don't really get to see how they play together into the final result the way they do with biathlon.

Jesus this got long, I was thinking anyway that this thread could transition into a thread about the world championships in biathlon and ski flying when these events start if interest warrants it.
Yea, it'll probably become the de facto wintersports Worlds thread.
 
Feb 12, 2010
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flyor64 said:
Long, but well informed. In perfect english I might add :D

It´d be cool if we got another thread going...but alas, the Classics are upon us and the interest will quiet down I think...

Not for us though, with a meter plus of snow on the ground we have weeks, if not months, of good skiing in front of us. :D

skål!

I try, but I can see that I was thinking in norwegian for that last part. :D

Optimally this world championship had been a month or so ago, while the forum was running on fumes for the winter. Can't have it all though.

Sadly we don't have meters of snow here, weather in Trøndelag is quite varied. Enough to get around for now though.
 
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Libertine Seguros said:
Well, tbh I would think the biathlon pursuit to be fairer if the sprint didn't also pay medals. A bit like in motorsports, the sprint sets the grid as it were. Then it would be a bit of a combined event. Kuzmina and Neuner being 1-2 in the Olympic sprint and with such a clear distance made them obvious favourites to go 1-2 in the pursuit too, which doubles up your medal count slightly artificially (I still won't take back my complaints about that sportspeople of the year poll where Lindsay Vonn was 2nd, Maria Riesch 7th, and Neuner not even mentioned, mind).

Yeah, that'd be a fair model. Sort of strange to reward having one poor race with having no chance in the next event, when both give medals.

Libertine Seguros said:
Yea, I've seen biathletes used in relay a few times. Most recently Lars Berger of course, and Miriam Gößner for the Germans too, though to be fair Germany are relatively weak at XC, which seems strange considering their passion for biathlon and tendency to produce great skiers who are very inconsistent with the rifle. I'm just surprised at them taking somebody as high profile for biathlon as Emil, for reasons you outline below.

The german skiers are/were apparently quite unhappy with the training methods used for this winter, I think they changed it up somewhere in the middle of the season. Obviously it didn't reap instant rewards.

Libertine Seguros said:
No, you're right, there isn't too much overlap. I was rather concerned over nothing to tell the truth - I was concerned that as they tend to put the biggest events near the end of the event, I'd either miss some biathlon events (near unthinkable) or the biggest events of the Nordics (annoying).

Well the 50 km start 13:00 CET on the last sunday, and I believe the pursuit (for men) starts 10:00 (for women) 12:30, on the saturday there's the 10 AM biathlon sprint for men, and 2 PM sprint for women, while the 30 km starts at midday. So I'm going to have to ditch the women's biathlon races. Missing the 'kollen 50 km is blasphemy.

Libertine Seguros said:
I think the problem NC faces is that a) the Gundersen being the only format most of the time means that the ski jump portion of the event is often not broadcast, and there's some opinion that it's basically an XC race with a staggered start. Jason Lamy Chappuis is of course doing his best to change that. The mastery of wildly differing disciplines is pretty impressive, but the fans watching at home don't really get to see how they play together into the final result the way they do with biathlon.

I didn't know that, in Norway the ski jumping part is usually shown.
 
Feb 12, 2010
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meandmygitane said:
I think that we outside Norway must watch it live and free here: http://nrk.no/skivm/?pvdeventid=1166

Works fine for me in Sweden at least (supplement to SVT)

Thanks for that, I just noticed today that you could see SVT on NRK's website. I actually saw an advertisement in town saying there's nothing better than watching Norway win on swedish TV. I oftentimes watch SVT, beautiful language and a bit more neutral commentating. I like NRK's commentators too though, and Alsgaard's of course a bonus.
 

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