UPDATED: Time to put on a bib again!
Nov 15, 2019·Nordic Combined
The Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup season 2019/20 is only two weeks away but for a number of athletes it is already time to put on a bib and start in an international competition earlier than that.
Two international pre-season events are held this year, one on the upcoming weekend at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 venue of Falun (SWE) and one in Rovaniemi (FIN) on the following weekend.
Falun will host an international FIS event for Nordic Combined women and a Norges Cup and the ski jumping part of the Norwegian national championships for men, while Rovaniemi is the host venue of the open international “First Snow Competition” in Finland, which is even broadcast by national broadcaster YLE every year.
In Falun, 34 men from four nations will be on start in the senior category: next to the host nation of Norway, the U.S. team is in Sweden with veteran Taylor Fletcher, Ben Loomis, Jasper Good, Jared Shumate, Grant Andrews and Stephen Schumann. The Estonian team is on location with Markus Kage, Markus Alter and Kristjan Ilves and the German B-team also joined the weekend with Jakob Lange, Justin Mozcarski, Simon Hüttel. Jonas Maier and Wendelin Thannheimer.
Befitting the national championships on Sunday, the Norwegian hosts have all their big names on start Jarl Magnus Riiber, Jørgen Graabak, Magnus Krog, Espen Andersen and Espen Bjørnstad.
20 other athletes will start in the junior category and also here, the field is a colourful mix of four nationalities: Norway, Latvia, Russia and USA.
27 women are on location to start in the Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping events and the Nordic Combined field has some of the biggest names of the women’s scene: USA’s Tara Geraghty-Moats will match her strength for example with Gyda Westvold Hansen (NOR), Veronica Gianmoena and Daniela Dejori (ITA).
The programme in Falun:
Saturday November 16: FIS Competition Women and Norges Cup Men
09:00 Trial round
10:00 Competition round
14:30 Cross Country
Sunday November 17: FIS Norwegian Championships Nordic Combined
09:00 Trial round
09:50 Competition round 1
10:45 Competition round 2
The cross country event will be held in Beitostølen, Norway, November 23-24.
You can find the start lists, results and live results here.
In Rovaniemi, the traditional "First Snow Competition" will bring together the local heroes from Finland with athletes from Japan, the Czech Republic, Korea and Italy. Team leaders Ilkka Herola and Eero Hirvonen will have the chance to pit their strength against Samuel Costa and Alessandro Pittin, Jan Vytrval and David Zemek, Go Sonehara and other Japanese B-team athletes, as well as Korea's Je-Un Park.
The programme in Rovaniemi:
Sunday, November 24:
09:00 Trial Round
10:10 Competition Round HS 100
14:30 Cross-country race 10 km
