ANTALYA, Turkey – In what could become an important move the Alpine World Cup committee approved the addition of a parallel slalom to be held in Munich, Germany and added a nation’s team event to kick off the season in Sölden, Austria.  Both events received unanimous approval.

The parallel event will be held in the Munich’s Olympic Park and will feature the top 16 competitors according to the WCSL (World Cup start list). Athletes will be awarded overall World Cup points with the top four receiving points as given in the regular World Cup. The rest of the participants will receive 15 points toward the overall title.

Over the past two seasons there has been a well received, but costly, parallel event in Moscow which men’s World Cup director Gunther Hujara was very instrumental in initiating. Speaking to the committee, Hujara requested that the committee “implement the race while the interest is high.”

This will not be the first time Munich will host a World Cup parallel event. The men and women each raced one in the city in 1986. Ironically the course setter was Hujara who was then a coach for the German team.

While the sentiment was very much in favor of holding the event, Sweden’s alpine star, Anja Person,  had mixed thoughts about the event, cautioning that awarding World Cup points might not be in the best interests of some of the athletes.

“I think the athletes will love to go to Munich,” Paerson said, “but I worry about the points. I am not sure it is fair.”

The committee also added a nation’s team event to the opening glacier event in Sölden, making the already popular race weekend even larger. The team event would be held on the Friday prior to the women’s and men’s giant slaloms.

The team event will use the same basic format introduced at the World Cup finals last spring in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and proved popular with both the athletes and fans. It was won by the team from the Czech Republic.

SkiRacing.com
3/06/2010