ALPINE SKI JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS. The FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships will take place in Crans-Montana from 29th January to 6th February 2011. Lying on a high plateau at 1500m, Crans-Montana is keen to take its long track-record on the ski circuit to even greater heights as it welcomes the more than 250 young racers and about 400 accompanying persons from some 45 nations. On 7th January 2011, it was one hundred years since the English skiing pioneer Sir Arnold Lunn organized the world's first timed downhill ski race, on the high Valais plateau from the Plaine Morte glacier to Mollens. Crans-Montana has so far hosted more than 20 FIS European Cup and 19 FIS World Cup competitions, two World Cup Finals (1992 & 1998), the European Cup Finals 2009, and the unforgettable 1987 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.

Crans-Montana has seen massive investments in recent years - in cable-cars, ski-lifts and pistes, with more planned for the future. Four million Swiss Francs were spent on updating the legendary 'Piste Nationale' where the final section of the Nationale was re-modeled, providing a spectacularly renewed slalom and giant slalom slope. The re-building of the 1987 ladies' World Championship Mont-Lachaux piste, begun summer 2010, means that the Junior World Ski Championship slalom and giant slalom competitions can be held on this piste, and the downhills and super-Gs on the Nationale.

The Alpine Junior Worlds 2011 in Crans-Montana will feature a single finish area for all eight races, and everything is close to hand: car parks and cable-car with an additional six-seater chairlift for quick access to the start points, the Regent Congress Hall for team captains' meetings and media center, hotels, an ice-rink for the opening ceremony, and, adjacent to the finish area, a large marquee with catering and relaxation facilities for the competitors and the delegates. The organizers' key focus: 'Providing a wonderful festival of ski and a celebration of youth'!

For more information visit www.skiwc-cransmontana.ch

Contributed by Hugo Steinegger
FIS news
26.1.2011

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