. world ski news : Rezac, Santer FIS Marathon Cup champions - 26 Ìàðò 2012 - 17:27
CROSS COUNTRY SKI. With the Birkebeinerrennet (NOR), the FIS Marathon Cup 2011/12 finished the season. Due to the cancellation of La Sgambeda in December, the FIS Marathon Cup only featured ten races instead of eleven, three of them in free technique.
Thanks to his consistently strong performances during the entire season, Stanislav Rezac (CZE) won the overall men's FIS Marathon Cup 2011/12 with 405 points in front of Anders Aukland (NOR, 311 points) and Jörgen Brink (SWE, 288 points).
On the ladies' side, it's Stephanie Santer (ITA), who claimed the overall victory. Santer dominated the series with 511 points ahead of Birkebeiner 2012 winner Seraina Boner (SUI, 485 points) and Jenny Hansson (SWE, 442 points). Santer took part in her first complete FIS Marathon Cup season and conquered it with a huge success. "I am so happy, this is amazing. The overall victory is a really big motivation for next season," said the new queen of marathon skiing 2011/12.
The popular races are also enjoying increased interest an incredible 52,689 persons skied the historical trail from Sälen to Mora during the Vasaloppet week and the 16,500 available bibs for the Birkebeiner race in Norway were sold out on the internet in less than 90 seconds!! Vasaloppet was broadcast live to 13 countries and seven of the biggest and most traditional races had live TV coverage this season.
"This is definitely a very positive development for our popular races and necessary to tell the story of Cross-Country as the most attractive and best sport for health and fitness, whilst being appealing as an elite sport," commented Vegard Ulvang, Chairman of FIS Cross-Country Committee.
Contributed by Michal Lamplot
FIS news
28/03/2012 [xt] ski