15th World Para Ski Championships - Award and Closing Ceremony
Sunday, 22 February 2015 22:38
21st February 2015 The end of a successful competition and the end of the Award and Closing Ceremony - which took place outside the Hotel in the gardens with a Bavarian brass band and an exhibition of an unusual traditional display of whips cracked to music - which was greatly appreciated by all the competitors. 15th World Para Ski Championships - Day 5
Saturday, 21 February 2015 22:19
As the results are released by the Chief Judge - they will appear on this link
The lovely smiling face of the new Female Para-Ski World Champion, Christina Franz from Switzerland - photograph courtesy of Johann Huemer 21st February, 2015 At the close of yesterday's blog I said I would report today on the Competitors' Meeting held at 16.00 hrs last night, before the Bavarian evening. It was a well attended meeting chaired by Michael Egger, the Chair of the Para-Ski Committee at IPC. He congratulated everyone on a successful competition, all the winners and all those who had competed. He explained that the idea of holding a competitors' meeting at the end of a World Championships was so that the Committee could listen to and share ideas for the future of our discipline. He would also give information to the competitors on the work of the committee. He stated that a delegation, including the Mayor from St. Johann, Austria had visited today to collect the FAI flag in preparation for the next World Championships to be held there in 2017. The Mayor had been very impressed with what he had seen whilst here and promised to provide excellent facilities and support for another great competition.
He then spoke about the changes to IPC this year and welcomed Dr. "Exi" Rainer Hoenle who is now the 1st Vice-President following the election in January. He also discussed the only change made to the rules by the Para-Ski committee this year, which had been to reduce the ski race to one run for a minimum competition to be declared, as with the number of accuracy rounds which currently are 2. Obviously should this happen the points awarded towards parity between the two events would be adjusted to give a more even playing field. Michael then asked if there were any questions from the floor, or comments on this World Championships. A Russian competitor asked that future Slalom courses be closer to the FIS standards as he felt the gates were too close together. This disadvantaged a team that arrived at a competition having trained for one set of standards to be met by anorher - that it could not be called a Giant Slalom. There was discussion from the floor which supported this comment and Michael promised the committee would look into it for the future. There was then a question from the floor (same Russian competitor) regarding the use of a video camera to challenge decisions made on the pad by the judges. There was considerable discussion not excluding the comments that this was already under discussion by the Accuracy Landing and Freefall Style committee who had looked at and considered systems already under development. It is not as simple as may be first thought, including, how many cameras, where are they sited (particularly for paraski) when are they used, would it be an advantage to competitors. It is an ongoing discussion which again the committee will look at for the future, although there was much opposition to it. The next item raised which caused a lot of discussion was the wish on the part of the competitiors to continue with the "trial" of having Female Teams of only two members. Michael said that this had been proposed originally to increase female participation in the event, whereas although it was introduced this year there were exactly the same number of female competitiors. However one of the German Female competitors pointed out that they had entered for the first time, introducing another NAC with a female team and they would not have done so if they had to have 4 members. Many felt it was too early to make a decision to do away with the idea and asked the committee to continue for the next World Championships. It was also proposed that this may also be a good idea for the Junior event. There were arguments well presented by both sides - but a show of hands in the room indicated that this is something competitors would like to continue. Michael then went on to explain the change made last year at IPC that Para-ski move to a different form of Jury than that used at all other First Category Events. One of the reasons Michael had proposed this in the first place was he felt that the costs were not justified, particularly when this was paid by the competitors out of sanction fees. After a little discussion, Michael was happy to accept a suggestion from the competitors that the committee look at the possibility of reducing the sanction fees paid by Para-ski competitors. The Russians proposed that each nation worked with their military in encouraging more participation in Para-ski and also that CISM look to developing it as one of their parachuting events, anything that would increase participation in this event. There were also suggestions that we looked at linking up with FIS to become part of their family. Michael said that when they had looked at this in the past they did not believe the standard of skiing in a Para-ski competition would be of interest to FIS. The meeting ended and everyone left for the evening arranged at a local Bavarian tavern, where traditional drinks and food were served, whilst music played and people danced - it was a very successful evening.
At 17.00 hrs this evening (21st February) the final ceremony of the 15th World ParaSki Championships will take place with the Award Ceremony and closing of the Competition. Congratulations to all our new World Champions, medal winners and all those who competed. See you next time. 15th World Para Ski Championships - Day 4
Friday, 20 February 2015 12:33
As the results are released by the Chief Judge - they will appear on this link
10.30 Start this beautiful morning with the intention of jumping Rounds 5 and 6 back to back - short break then into the Final Round of Individual Accuracy.. By 12.30 we were at the end of the 6th round. We await the official results for the teams and the names of those who will go forward into the Individual final. At the end of round 5 Germany was still in first place, with Russia 11 cents behind and Slovenia in third place. The picure on the left shows the approach to the target from a competitor's point of view - thanks to Henny Wiiggers, Netherlands. Germany is about to jump their 6th round - Germany jumped and consolidated their first place - which is really a nice thing for the home Nation. Russia held their second place with Slovenia third. It has been a good competition in excellent conditions. At 13.50 we will go into the final round for the Individual positions, with 9 men and 4 female jumpers.
The German TV (Bavaria TV) are here today filming the finals. It was interesting to watch them on the slope - but they soon got the hang of what they needed to film.
For the Female Teams, Austria were in 1st place, Switzerland 2nd and Russia 2 in third. Just to show that the IPC President, Graeme Windsor is still in touch with the grass roots of our sport - here he is on the tuffet, as he has been on each round. Joined by the Chair of the ParaSki Committee and both FAI Controller and President of the Jury at this competition.
At the end of the day the results worked out as follows:
Female Individual Combined World Champion and Gold Medal Winner - Christina Franz, Switzerland with a total of 46 points Silver Medal, Marina Kücher, Austria, total 51 points and in Bronze Medal position, Magdalena Schwertl, Austria total of 77 points. Male Individual Combined World Champion and Gold Medal Winner - Matej Becan, Slovenia, with a total of 22 points Silver Medal, Ayaz Karimov, Russia total 27 and Bronze Medal to Anton Filippov, Russia with a total of 28 points. A very tight contest. Junior Individual Combined World Champion and Gold Medal Winner Sebastian Graser, Austria, with a total of 78 points Silver Medal, Petr Chládek Jnr, Czech Republic with 84 points and with a Bronze Medal Anton Petrik Russia, with a total of 93 points. Master Individual Combined Champion and Gold Medal Winner, Peter Klarmann, Germany with a total of 17 points Silver Medal to Andreas Fischer, Germany with a total of 27 points and Bronze Medal goes to Thomas Saurer, Switzerland on 35 points.
It was then all back to the hotel for a Competitors' Meeting, which I will report on in the morning - followed by a very Bavarian evening of beer, glühwein, good food and dancing.
15th World ParaSki Championships -- Day 3
Thursday, 19 February 2015 10:00
As the results are released by the Chief Judge - they will appear on this link
Thurdsday 19th February, 2015 As competitors arrive for the first run of the ski race they are greeted by sparkling snow and sunshine, no sign of yesterday's foggy conditions. By 11.10 the last skier crossed the finish line and after a short break we will move to the second run to complete the skiing part of the Para-Ski competition. 12.10 for the start of the second run. There were a few disappointments on the first.run but the results are - Female in 1st place after that run : Magdelena Schwertl, Austria, with a time of 56.50 : 2nd Christine Franz, Switzerland with a time of 58.48 and : 3rd Ekaterina Nevskaya, Russia with a time of 58.79. Male results : in first place Matej Becan, Slovenia with a time of 51.88 : 2nd Ayaz Karimov, Russia with a time of 52.50 : and 3rd Reinhold Haibel, Germany with a time of 52.57. Ksenia Trofimova, Russia was disqualified after the first run, as she did not make the finish - fortunately she did not sustain an injury - unfortunately the same cannot be said for Mathias Islee, Switzerland who injured his knee badly on the qualifying run and is out of the competition. We wish him a speedy recovery.
13.30 The second ski run is completed by all competitors. The centre of attendion at the foot of the run is the score-board where the time for each tun is meticulously recorded - it is here you can see how your immediate competitor has done and I can get a sneek preview of the scores: Of course these are unofficial at the moment: Female Magdelena Schwerti, Austria looks to have retained her 1st place with a second run of 57.22, which is the fastest of all the women. Christina Franz, Switzerland did a faster run than her first by .34 seconds with a second run time of 58.14 thus retaining her second place and Ekaerina Nievskaya scored 1.01.96, retaining her third position. Male Matej Becan, Slovenia loses first place with a 2nd run of 53.48 giving a total for both runs of 1.05.36; and Ayaz Karimov, Russia being pushed into third place following his run of 53.49 giving a total of 1.05.99 whereas Reinhold Halbel, Germany with a second run of 52.68 giving him a total of 1.05.25 has moved into first place. These have neen confirmed by the offical scores.
Tomorrow the weather promises to be good - so we will be able to continue the competition in the morning. The plan is to complete the last two fnial rounds of Accuracy Landing, 5 and 6 and theb move to the Final Round for the Individual Accuracy result.
15th World ParaSki Championships -- Day 2
Wednesday, 18 February 2015 12:52
As the results are released by the Chief Judge - they will appear on this link
Wednesday, 18th February, 2015 13.40 and we were underway with the first of the wind-drift indicator loads quickly followed by the first team in the first round of Accuracy. As I write the second round is u 15th World ParaSki Championships -- Day 1
Tuesday, 17 February 2015 23:56
15th World ParaSki Championships -- Delegation Australia
Tuesday, 17 February 2015 22:25
15th World ParaSki Championships -- Delegation Austria
Tuesday, 17 February 2015 22:23
15th World ParaSki Championships -- Delegation Czech Republic
Tuesday, 17 February 2015 22:17
15th World ParaSki Championships -- Delegation Germany
Tuesday, 17 February 2015 22:08
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Michael then talked about the disappointing World Cup Series for 2015, which resulted in two competitions being incompleted due to dreadful weather and the third was cancelled for the same reason. Undaunted, they proposed to continue witth the World Series for the coming year starting in January with a test event for 2017 - and wished the Czech Republic a successful third attempt at a competition.
Friday, 20th February 2015
A warm welcome awaits the competitors as they arrive at this pretty Bavarian village and ski centre for the 15th World Championships. 
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