. world ski news : Norway and Switzerland triumphant at Telemark Worlds 2009 - 30 January 2009 - 16:01
The FIS Telemark World Championships 2009 continued in Kreischberg-Murau (AUT) on Thursday 22nd January and concluded on Saturday 24th January with the traditional Telemark events, classic and classic sprint, respectively. These include a cross-country part at the bottom of the hill section which entails gates and jumps.
Norwegian Sigrid Rykhus turned out to be the female Telemarker to beat as she took the title in both classic events, successfully defending her sprint gold from 2007. Behind Rykhus, Swiss giant slalom champion Amelie Reymond collected two silver medals, both times ahead of her teammate. In the end, the medal winners on the ladies side were always the same, with the Swiss duo ahead in giant slalom and Rykhus dominating the classics.
On the men's side, the 2007 triple champion Eirik Rykhus (NOR had a tall order which he began successfully by winning gold in the first event, giant slalom. In the classic, he was beaten by Swede Matthias Wagenius and Swiss Sebastian Dayer who fought until the very end to take the top spots. On Sunday, Borge Sovik (NOR) took the classic sprint gold ahead of Rykhus with Wagenius also collecting a second medal by taking the bronze. As a result, Eirik Rykhus captured one of each color of medals.
Following the 2003 FIS Snowboard World Championships and several ski cross and Snowboard World Cups, the 2009 Telemark World Championships in Kreischberg-Murau benefited from the great experience of the local organizing committee headed by Hello Haas, the man who also led the organization of the highly successful FIS Snowboard World Championships 2007 in Arosa (SUI).
FIS news
30.1.2009