Great Junior & U23 World Championships in Praz de Lys

Thu, Feb  12, 2009 - By FIS

The FIS U-23 and Junior Cross-Country World Championships were successfully held from 29th January to 6th February 2009 in Praz de Lys, (FRA). The competition site at the high plateau in the tourism region of Haute Savoie presented itself in an excellent condition with plentiful snow, bright sun, well-prepared courses and a great view of the famous Mont Blanc.

The U-23 World Championships entailed two distance competitions (pursuit & an individual start race in free technique) and a sprint competition in classical technique. The most successful athlete was Sylwia Jaskowiec from Poland who won both the ladies' distance races. In the sprint, Russian Nina Rysina claimed victory. On the men's side, Maurice Manificat, a native of Haute Savoie, won the individual start race, Sergey Cherepanov (KAZ) claimed victory in the pursuit and in the sprint Ales Razym (CZE) collected the gold medal. The U-23 medals table was led by Poland with two gold medals (2-0-0) ahead of Russia with 5 medals (1-2-2) and Kazakhstan with two medals (1-1-0).

In the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Cross-Country four competitions per gender took place. The queen of this event was Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg from Norway, who won all three individual competitions (sprint, pursuit and interval start) as well claimed victory with her team in the relay competition. On the men's side the dominator was Petr Sedov from Russia. He won the three gold medals in the pursuit, interval start and the relay. Only the Sprint victory went to another male athlete - Sedov's teammate Alexander Panzhinskiy. In total, 6 different nations from 33 participating nations made a podium place. The medal ranking was won by Russia with 7 medals (4-2-1) ahead of Norway with 8 medals (4-1-3) and Sweden with (0-3-1).

The Marc Hodler Trophy for the best team at the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships 2009 (ranking including the Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined competitions in Strbske Pleso (SVK) was won by Norway with 161 points ahead of the team Germany and team Russia.

Overview of the winners:

U23
10 km Individual start in free technique, ladies: Sylwia Jaskowiec (POL)
15 km Individual start in free technique men: Maurice Manificat (FRA)
Pursuit ladies: Sylwia Jaskowiec (POL)
Pursuit men: Sergey Cherepanov (KAZ)
Sprint classical technique ladies: Nina Rysina (RUS)
Sprint classical technique men: Ales Razym (CZE)

Junior:
Sprint classical technique ladies: Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR)
Sprint classical technique men: Alexander Panzhinskiy (RUS)
Pursuit ladies: Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR)
Pursuit men: Petr Sedov (RUS)
5 km Individual start in free technique ladies: Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR)
10km Individual start in free technique men: Petr Sedov (RUS)

Relay ladies: Norway
Relay men: Russia