Dairy: World Cup Cross-Country Skiing in Oberhof, January 2003

Since for some of us the way to Antholz was too long for just a weekend, Daniel, Lars, Saskia and Markus decided to set out for the cross-country skiing world cup in Oberhof to support Manu loudly. Daniel and Markus already arrived on Friday, Lars and Saskia jointed us in the course of Saturday morning.

	Manu on the way to the top

Arriving in the stadium we met Manu’s parents and the father of Janet Klein. After a small chat the mass start competition of the women already started. We saw a great competition of the German girls: Manu 6th, Evi 9th, Claudia 11th, Viola 13th, Stefanie 19th, Anke 24th, Anja Krellner 27th, Yvonne Zeibig 28th, and Isabel Klaus, who had a spectacular fall in the descent, finished on place 30. Anyway, the fair spectators celebrated the finish of Isabel as frenetically as the victory of Bente Skari, who won the mass start competition being in lead by 42 seconds.

We met some further acquaintances: Family Besslein from the MGFC was in Oberhof as well; but only two of them could come here – the mother unfortunately had to stay home because of a fractured arm. On this way: Get well soon! In the men’s competition Fibs got the best German finishing on place four. He just missed the place on the victory pedestal by a hair’s breadth. Tobias Angerer and Rene Sommerfeldt finished on places 10 and 12.

In the evening we went into the spa garden to watch the presentation ceremony. Unfortunately, there were only about 150 spectators present, what didn’t harm the good atmosphere anyway. The only drop of bitterness was that Kaisa Varis, Kirsi Vaelimaa and Bente Skari didn’t appear. We still met Manu in the house of the guests and had a small chat with her. Afterwards we went for dinner. Here Lars created a new style of walking . Anyway, showing considerations for Lars we won’t talk about it in this place anymore .

	Womens relay winner presentation

On Sunday morning it was said to stand up early again, because we had to vacate the room until 10 a.m. Being in good mood we set out for the Grenzadler again. We just had arrived when we met Henkels and Janet’s father again. Later on Janet and Sabrina Buchholz joined us as well. They just came back from the Germany cup the evening before, which this time took place in Bayrisch Eisenstein at the Arber. They told us something about the Germany cup and as ever were in good mood. When we reserved our places for the race directly at the finishing line, we still met further members of the AHFC: Juergen and Ute Weiss. They just came back from Ruhpolding in the beginning of the week and spontaneously decided to come to Oberhof as well.

Afterwards the relay was started and we crossed our fingers for the German girls, especially for Claudia and Manu, of course. And really - they just had to admit defeat to the Norwegian double Moen/Pedersen. Stefanie and Viola followed on place 3; Anke and Isabel on the 4th place completed the good German result.

At the men’s it worked out for the guys as well. In a photo finish Rene and Tobias finished on the second place behind Zorzi/Di Centa, Fibs and his partner became 5th placed.

All together the weekend in Oberhof was a huge success. Not only because of the top rankings of Manu and the other athletes, but cross-country skiing gets much more popular in Germany as well – what could be noticed by the spectators. There was not such a crowd of people as in biathlon competitions but the stadium speaker was audibly satisfied anyway.

Here you can find the pictures from the World Cup cross country-skiing in Oberhof

Back