2011 WU Update Day8 – Cross Country- Mixed Relay

First Time Ever

ERZURUM – February 3rd- Cross Country Mixed Relay.

The Cross Country competition continued today in Kandili with the Sprint Mixed Relay event. A first, as it was the first time that we had such kind of event in our program. Indeed, the idea was to allow more countries to compete the Relay with a real chance to gain the Gold Medal. Also note that this event was introduced by our Technical delegates after the 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin, China. The Executive Committee of FISU approved this introduction with the support of the FIS. The Winter Universiade is now the only competition with this kind of event and the FIS was very curious to see the way the organizers could handle it. We can say that it was a total success and the FIS delegates who saw the competition live on TV were enthusiasts.

Indeed, we had 27 teams from 16 different countries competing this morning. As it was freezing cold (-28° Celsius) the jury decided to postponed the competition, and to wait for one more hour. With so many teams, the competition had to be divided in two semi-final groups.

The sprint relay is a very demanding event and this time the competitors had 6 laps of 1.3km to go (3 for both men and women with a relay after each lap and with the men starting first and the women finishing).

The final was a big battle between Slovakia, Ukraine and the two French teams. Finally, Slovakia gained the Gold followed by Ukraine and France (2).

The Cross country competition will end on Saturday with the Mass start 15-30km events.

(Y. Dufour, FISU Editor)

The first Cross Country Mixed Relay Podium