Cross-country competitors will start the WSC with Qualification Races
14. 02 2009 15:45:00
(Liberec, own) Repeated questions of our website visitors regarding the qualification races make us repeat the information we already published on 30 October 2008. The qualification races for men and women, scheduled for 18 February in the programme of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Liberec 2009, are really a “novelty” from the organizers of the Championships.
“For the first time in the history of the World Championships before the busiest cross-country competitions, that is the 10 km classic technique with interval start competition Ladies (taking place on Thursday, 19 February 2009) and 15 km classic technique with interval start Men (taking place on Friday, 20 February 2009) qualification races will take place”, explains Michal Lamplot, OC Chief of Sport Section. The qualification races aim at reducing numbers of competitors starting in the main competitions. “With current numbers of more than 250 men and 150 women who have registered for the World Championships this is a necessary step,” Lamplot adds. This rule shall be applied in Liberec for the first time.
The qualification races for men and women will take place on Wednesday, 18 February 2009. Competitors are chosen on the basis of binding FIS rules which are different for men and women. The rules state that:
- Every female competitor must participate in the 5 km classic technique qualification race who has received (de facto until the start of the Championships) more than 120.00 FIS Distance Points, while this is according to the last FIS Points List is (the fourth list of this year (no. 4, 2009) issued by FIS and valid from 6 February 2009 till 5 March 2009);
- Every male competitor must participate in the 10 km classic technique qualification race who has received more than 90.00 FIS Distance Points according to the last FIS Points List (see above).
FIS Distance Points mean that every competitor receives 0 points for a race he/she wins in a time period of World Cup competitions with sprint competitions and other competitions (distance) being judged separately. For example, the current leading WC competitor Lukas Bauer holds 0.25 points in distance competitions but 120.90 points in sprint competitions. As far as sprint competitions are concerned, the best athlete is Emil Joensson, Sweden, with 4.81 FIS Distance Points. Among women the current best results both in distance and sprint competitions belong to Virpi Kuitunen with 0.0 and 0.91 FIS Points respectively.
“Each competitor taking part in any competition will receive “penalty points” according to his/her time lag behind the winner. These are “penalty points” on the grounds that the smaller the time lag, the fewer points the competitor receives. For the FIS Points List the average of the competitor´s 5 best results over the last 12 months will count,” adds Petr Mach, WSC Chief of Cross-country Competition.
Ten best women and ten best men will qualify for the main competition from the qualification race. Entries for the qualification races must be submitted by individual teams until 2 hours before the Team Captains´ Meeting (TCM) on 17 February 2009.
No qualification races will take place for any other cross-country events of the Championships.
(hl; transl. mc)
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