FIS Race Director Jürg Capol:
“Dusseldorf has always been creative”
The FIS Cross-Country Ski World Cup in Dusseldorf (December 3-4) celebrates its tenth anniversary this year – and enjoys praise from every corner: “Here people have learnt and developed very much in a short time, they have always been creative,” says FIS Race Director Jürg Capol and refers to the multi-coloured circus world on Burgplatz. “At its inauguration the World Cup in Dusseldorf was still a bit exotic, since then the organisers have been a perfect partner that turned the World Cup into a very successful event.”
The guaranteed snow in the capital of North-Rhine Westphalia is just one example. “We don’t have to worry about the weather and the snow. We will lay a perfect track”, promises August Pollen, head of the organisation and also Managing Partner of ‘allrounder mountain resort gmbh & co.kg’. “Dusseldorf has proven to be an ideal site.” German head coach Jochen Behle also praised Dusseldorf: “There is always snow, you can be absolutely sure of that.”
Track chief Georg Zipfel ensures that the course, prepared from snow produced at JEVER Ski Hall Neuss, will again be ready at the first starting signal on Saturday at 10:30 hrs: “I have never seen the event here in Dusseldorf as well prepared as this year.”
Behle: “The World Cup in Dusseldorf is a pioneer event for the city events.” This is also corroborated by figures. “In the past years we registered altogether 2.2 million visitors on the occasion of the World Cup events and enjoyed a total of 150 hrs of TV broadcasts from Dusseldorf”, says Christina Begale, Managing Director of sportAgentur Düsseldorf, joint organisers together with the ‘allrounder mountain resort GmbH & co. kg’ and the ‘West German Regional Ski Association’. “We are very pleased and honoured that we may play a leading part with a large number of volunteers in this successful event“, underlines Matthias Birkenholz, President of the ‘West German Regional Ski Association’.
There will be a break for the FIS Cross-Country Ski World Cup in Dusseldorf in 2012. “The World Cup will take place overseas next year. In 2013 everything will be normal again”, said Behle and added: “There is no other venue conceivable in this region than Dusseldorf.”
The race in the city is always very special for Behle’s athletes. And they have set their aims: “I want to finish among the top 15”, discloses Josef Wenzel, the 2007 winner in Dusseldorf. His German team-mate Hanna Kolb, 2009 and 2011 World Junior bronze medallist in relay, is aiming at the semi-finals: “I want to improve my result from last year.”
The FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Dusseldorf will be shown live this year on the German public TV station ZDF and on Eurosport. The transmission times: ZDF, Saturday from 13.40hrs CET until the end; Sunday from 13.05hrs until the end. Eurosport Saturday 13.15-14.15hrs; Sunday 13.00-14.00hrs.
