In Villars-sur-Ollon (SUI) the Ski mountaineering World Championships will open up on Saturday 9th March

The first competition, the Sprint race, is scheduled for Sunday morning

Lausanne, 8th March 2019 – With the opening ceremony in Villars-sur-Ollon (Switzerland) on Saturday afternoon the Ski mountaineering World Championships will officially open up under the direction of the ISMF staff. The best athletes of ski mountaineering will take part in this world event, representing 31 nations. A real record of participation that will make this Championships unparalleled in Switzerland.
The general programme will follow the original lines and the Col de Bretaye will become the main area of the event. Therefore it will start on Sunday morning with the Sprint race with a mix of speed, technique and adrenaline.
On Monday morning the space will be given to the youth categories with the Individual race. These kids will face the same tracks next year at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games. The Cadets and the Juniors Women will have a positive difference in height of 897 metres, while the Juniors Men of 1465 metres.
The following day, on Tuesday, the Espoir and the Senior categories will compete in the Individual race. For them the positive difference in altitude will be of 1704 metres divided in four ascents and two parts on foot.
The Vertical race, of 404 metres of difference in height for the youngsters and 620 metres for the Seniors, will take place on Wednesday afternoon starting at 4 pm.
After the day off, on Friday the athletes will come back to the route with the last two races of the World Championships programme. The Team Race will take place on Friday morning (starting at 9.30 am), while the spectacular and exciting Relay race will close the event on Saturday morning.
In the Team race the Men will have to face a track of positive difference in height of 2440 metres (six ascents and two parts on foot), while the Women of 2160 metres (five ascents and only one part on foot).
The ISMF Event and General Manager Roberto Cavallo declares: «The edition of the World Championships that is about to start will be a very important event for the development of Ski mountaineering worldwide for several reasons. First of all the fact that this is the last opportunity to qualify for the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympics Games. This factor has involved a considerable number of participants in all categories, in particular among the Cadets. Moreover, Villars-sur-Ollon is located in a central position in relation to all European countries and this has allowed the registration of a significant number of athletes, the best élite of all the most important nations. Villars, with its organisation and the complete availability of the Local Organising Committee, has meant that many nations coming from overseas have joined the event with a large participation, such as USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Japan and South Korea».

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