Pit stop at the cradle of skiing

Next up in the long World Cup season of 2017/18 is a quick pit stop at one of the most traditional venues and sanctuary of the Nordic sports: Holmenkollen in Oslo. Once more, Norway’s King Harald V will award the prestigious King’s Cup and a short audience to the winner of one Individual Gundersen event held on Saturday.

With two victories and one second place in Oslo in the last three years, things are looking bright for current World Cup leader Akito Watabe, who usually gets into top shape towards the end of the season and really likes the Norwegian venue with its spectacular jumping hill and winding cross-country tracks.

After last weekend, Watabe was able to extend his lead on Norwegian Jan Schmid to 51 points but with six events still to come until the season end, nothing has been decided yet. Schmid will have to utilise the extra support from the home crowd and get back to a reliable, stable jumping shape if he wants to continue pushing Watabe.

Last weekend’s winner Johannes Rydzek has climbed to the third rank in the overall standings now but still needs to catch up 350 points if he wants to endanger Watabe’s lead. An uphill battle for sure and the situation doesn’t allow any of the contenders to slip up at any point if they want to keep the their chances intact, which should add even more spice to the proceedings.

With the cross-country race scheduled right before the traditional men’s 50 km event in Cross-Country Skiing, the stage is set for a great atmosphere and lots of crowd support.

The programme (local time = CET)

Subject to change! Please check back here for up-to-date times!

Friday, 09.03.

09:00 Official training HS 134

11:00 Provisional Competition Round/Qualification HS 134

13:00 Official training cross-country

Saturday, 10.03.

09:00 Trial Round HS 134

10:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN Competition Round HS 134

13:30 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN 10 km cross-country race

Quick Facts:

HILL

Holmenkollen

HS 134

TRACK

Holmenkollen

2x 2.5 km free-technique loop and 1x 5 km loop (due to CC 50 km)

Height Difference: 108 m

Maximum Climb: 76m

Total climb: 334 metres