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The Nordic Junior World Ski Championships JWSC has officially been awarded to Vuokatti and Lahti (FIN).

The Finns are taking over the hosting responsibilities after Zakopane (POL) announced in autumn, that they could not host the Nordic JWSC in 2021 due to challenges with Covid-19.

Vuokatti will host the Junior and U23 Cross-Country World Ski Championships and Lahti will take over the Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Junior World Ski Championships.

For the Cross-Country competitions, Vuokatti scheduled the competitions from 8th to 14th February 2021. The preliminary competition program includes:

  • Sprints for Junior and U23 are held in Classic technique
  • Junior 5/10km and U23 10/15km individual races to be held in Free technique
  • Junior womens and mens relay and mixed relay for U23
  • Junior 15km/30km Mass start in Classic technique

The Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined competitions in Lahti will be held from 9th to 12th February 2021, directly after the FIS Cup in Ski Jumping and the Continental Cup of Nordic Combined.

The preliminary competition program for Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined includes:

  • HS 100 individual competitions for women and men
  • Mixed team competitions

The Finnish Ski Association wants to secure the path and development of a young athletes by offering the opportunity to compete on an international level in Finland.

“Organizing competitions in this global situation is challenging, but with two strong organizing locations, we came to an end result that serves our sports and athletes. There are many components in an equation that affect the whole. We do not compromise on health safety, but we want to guarantee the development of top sports also taking into account the economic realities.” Ismo Hämäläinen, Executive Director of the Finnish Ski Association

Vuokatti will have the opportunity to test the conditions and the competition organization for the European Youth Olympic Fesitval that is scheduled from 11th to 18th December 2021.

“We are happy to have all the ski stars of the future as our guests to compete in Vuokatti. We will be able to test the plans for the EYOF and test them in spring,” says Ann-Mary Ähtävä, Secretary General of the Junior World Championships. Ähtävä competed herself in the Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Vuokatti in 1992.

Vuokatti already has a set up team in place to organize the Cross-Country competitions, with students of Kainuu Vocational College and Kajaani University of Applied Sciences. The team has already prepared the implementation together with Vuokatti Sport and are responsible for arranging the JWSC competitions in Cross-Country skiing. The main idea of ​​organizing the competition is that young people plan the competition for young people.

A compact race tube for international competitions in Lahti

Lahti Ski Club looks ahead to a compact package of international competitions. With the Salpausselä Championships in January, three FIS Cup competitions and two Continental Cup competitions from 6th to 7th February the busy programme is concluded with the Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined competitions of the JWSC.

“This weekend’s FIS Cup and Continental Cup before the World Championships for young people give us the opportunity to build a good race week. Of course, the effort is hard for our voluntary organization, which will only have completed the Salpausselä competition a couple of weeks earlier, but we strongly believe in our knowledgeable and committed competition community.” Juha Kolu, President of the Lahti Ski Association

The competition program for all sports will be published by the International Ski Federation after the adaption of draft programs. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and respective challenges, several of the standard competitions had to be canceled.

Learn more about the contests after the websites and social media channels open.

# jwsc2021 | # roadtovuokatti2021 | # roadtolahti2021

Contacts Nordic JWSC 2021

Ann-Mary Ähtävä, JWSC2021 – Vuokatti, Secretary General, +358 44 307 5759
Juha Kolu, JWSC2021 – Lahti, President of the Lahti Ski Association, +358 50 404 7017

https://www.fis-ski.com/en/cross-country/cross-country-news-multimedia/news/2020-21/jwsc-2021-confirmed-in-vuokatti-and-lahti-finland

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