FIS World cup in Cross county is over

Rogla was a venue of FIS World Cup in Cross Country from 16th till 18th of December. A Slovenian Ski Resort hosted this top event for a second time, after a race in 2009. More than 200 runners, from 20 countries, took part in Saturday's and Sunday's race.

Despite problems regarding the weather conditions, organizers did a great job and made sure that Friday's training was according the schedule. Organizers had an incredible spirit and an enormous amount of enthusiasm. Within five days, local farmers, who helped with 118 tractors, and a team of volounters set up more than 10,000 m3 of artifical snow on the race pist. With that kind of dedication also nature decided to help and there was snowing on Friday and Saturday night.

Rogla and Organizing Comitee of the competition welcomed all the athletes. Former cross country champion Petra Majdič was a vicepresident of the OC and she was there to make sure that the athletes felt like home. More than 200 volounters from Slovenia and employees from Unior d.d. Programme Tourism were part of the event ROGLA OPEN 2011 and with their help everything was ready for the exciting World Cup in Cross Country on ROGLA.

On Saturday runners competed in 15km (M) and 10 km (W) - classic, while Sunday was reserved for sprint – freestyle.

FIS Cross Country Race Director Jürg Capol ’s remark after the Saturday's race was : »We had exciting mass start competition today and have to say a big thanks to the OC that had really a big challenge with the weather in the past days. This morning they did an incredible job to reprepare everything after heavy snowfall and storm in the last night. Tomorrow the weather forecast looks much better, no wind, temperatures aorund – 6 and the humitity will drop.«

Runners competed in sprint free technique on Sunday. The forecast was right and Rogla was sunny. It was a perfect weather. More than 3000 supporters gathered on Rogla.

After a great event on Rogla, the FIS allready announced that Rogla will be on a longterm calendar to host World Cup in Cross Country again.