2011 Harrachov CZE In March of 2011, the Old Boys of the ski jumping world returned to Harrachov CZ for the International Masters Championships. This tiny village, home of one of the world's six ski flying hills, is on the northern border of the Czech Republic and had hosted the IMC in 2002. Stanislav Slavic, the director in 2002, was again in charge of the Championships in 2011. Harrachov 90, 70 and 40 Meter Hills   (2002 photo)   The cluster of three hills used for the IMC (K-90, 70, 40) are in the village, sheltered by dense stands of tall spruce trees. The old 65 meter hill was recently rebuilt into a 70 meter, much different from the original. The old tower was removed and the new inrun is all on the ground, long and flat, only 25 degrees. Changes were also made to the 40 meter inrun, but the big hill was unchanged. We have received reports from Erkki Ahtiainen and Aatto Lamminpaa who agree that the IMC was a good one, and that for the competitions, the jumping conditions were perfect as hill workers kept the landing hills well groomed, and the machine-cut inrun tracks were deep, straight and well iced. Even a little bit of rain on Friday couldn't spoil the tracks. Monday and Tuesday, the training days, were blessed with perfect weather and the hills were in good condition. Tuesday evening the teams marched through the village to the jumps for a short, pleasant opening ceremony, Entertainment included a dance group and six skiers with old-time skis and clothing. Competition started Wednesday morning, March 9, with the premier event, the middle sized hill. With a start list of 134 athletes, organizers split the K-70 meter competition, with the older age groups competing first at 10 am, then the younger athletes performing later. Prizes for each day's competition were awarded in the evening. The K-40 competition began at 9:30 on Thursday morning, With 108 skiers, the field was again split -- the older age groups finished their three round competition, followed later by the younger competitors. Late in the afternoon, teams moved to the Cross Country Stadium for the Nordic Combined Team Relays, which were run on a one kilometer course. (Sorry, no results yet.) Friday began with 71 athletes competing for honors on the big hill. Later on, folks walked across town to the junior jumps where 24 skiers competed on the K-26 meter hill. This small hill event is officially unofficial, a gift from the organizers to the oldest of the jumpers, so it is under the control of the organizers, who divided the 24 competitors into just five classes: 35-49, 50-59, 60-60, 70-79 and Ladies. On Saturday morning, eight 6-person teams contested the 70 meter team event. National teams consist of six skiers, one from each of the first six age groups (or older). Finland posted the winning score, ahead of Norway and Russia. After lunch the action moved to the cross country stadium, where the Nordic combined competitors ran one or more laps of a 2 km course. The week closed with a festive banquet held in an unusual venue, Harrachov is home to a leading Bohemian glass producer established in 1712, and the banquet was held in the old glass factory with the guests seated among the glass furnaces.   A Brief Statistical Summary A quick count in the result sheets show that 187 skiers from 18 nations made 402 starts. Here are two tables -- one showing the team sizes and medal counts, and the other showing class sizes in the five events. NAT size mdls -------------- AUT 12 9 CAN 1 0 CZE 20 3** Cl. Ages K-26 K-40 K-70 K-90 NC EST 4 1 -------------------------------------- FIN 35 33 10 75-79 * 2 2 GBR 2 0 9 70-74 2 5 3 3 GER 20 6 8 65-69 * 11 6 2 5 HUN 4 2 7 60-64 7 12 10 5 8 KAZ 1 0 6 55-59 * 9 13 7 4 NOR 42 30 5 50-54 5 16 17 9 10 POL 1 0 4 45-49 * 14 24 11 11 RUS 26 18 3 40-44 * 9 13 10 6 SLO 2 0 2 35-39 7 19 25 12 7 SUI 3 2 1 30-34 * 8 19 12 9 SVK 1 0 Guests 26-29 4 3 SWE 8 3 Ladies 3 3 UKR 4 2 ------------------------------------- USA 1 2 Totals: 24 108 134 71 65 =402 -------------- (* Age groups were combined.) Total 187 117 (** +6 guests) We have also prepared a list of all 187 competitors in IMC-2011 showing the skiers' nations and how they placed in each event.   Take a look.   No new nations joined the IMC family in 2011, but the 18 participating teams set a new record, up from the previous mark of 16 recorded at the two previous IMCs. (We note that one week later, ski flying in Planica SLO had only 16 nations represented.) In the history of IMC, skiers have come from 22 different nations -- this year only LAT, FRA, ITA & AUS were missing of those who have been represented in the past. Organizers posted an early list of 196 athletes from 19 nations who registered for IMC 2011, but the result sheets show that 187 actually competed, and the single skier from Latvia did not compete. This number is just slightly above the average number of participants over the previous six years. The total of 402 individual starts was also above the recent average, but was not a record -- skiers made 408 starts in 2008 in Taivalkoski FIN. IMC rules restrict a skier to two jumping events plus Nordic Combined, so an athlete can take home at most three individual medals. In 2011, seven athletes did win three medals, the top performer being Arsi Sjogren whose three medals were all gold! (See medalist list below.) This year's oldest competitor was Richard Diess of Austria, born in 1933. Matti Nykänen participated again, as did our own celebrity, Sindre Helland, the only man to ski in all 22 editions of IMC. Most of the IMC results are now posted here. (Still missing is the Nordic Combined Team Relay.) Here are links to the events: 40 meter jumping 70 meter jumping N.C. Team Relay 90 meter jumping 26 meter jumping 70m team jumping Nordic Combined Here are the names of the medalists from IMC 2011 in Harrachov, CZ: (Note - on the 26 meter hill, age groups were 35-49, 50-59, 60-60, 70-79.) [This listing is wide, use your horizontal slider (if necessary) to view all five columns.]

26 meter (K) 40 meter (K) 70 meter (K) 90 meter (K) Nordic Combined Cl. 10 1 (see below) AUT Richard Dieß AUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richard Dieß AUT 75-79 2 FIN Teuvo Koljonen FIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teuvo Koljonen FIN Cl. 9 1 Richard Dieß FIN Martti Lamminpää FIN Martti Lamminpää FIN . . . . . . . . . . . Kaare Magnar Holmen NOR 70-74 2 Anatoliy Chistyakov RUS Kurt Elimä SWE Kaare Magnar Holmen NOR . . . . . . . . . . . Martti Lamminpää FIN 3 . . . . . . . . . . . Kaare Magnar Holmen NOR Knut Gustav Wester NOR . . . . . . . . . . . Anatoliy Chistyakov RUS Cl. 8 1 (see below) Reidar Finnanger NOR Sergey Leninskiy RUS Antti Kokkonen FIN Reidar Finnanger NOR 65-69 2 . . . . . . . . . . . Sergey Leninskiy RUS Antti Kokkonen FIN Aatto Lamminpää FIN Åke Saloniemi SWE 3 . . . . . . . . . . . Sigmund Stenberg NOR Aatto Lamminpää FIN Aatto Lamminpää FIN Cl. 7 1 Jan Ringseth NOR Väinö Karjalainen FIN Knut Soerlien NOR Bjorn Knutsen NOR Jan Skevik NOR 60-64 2 Reidar Finnanger NOR Sindre Helland (tie) NOR Vladimir Kalinin RUS Vladimir Kalinin RUS Väinö Karjalainen FIN 3 Per Birger Lomheim NOR Johannes Orschel(tie) GER Sindre Helland NOR Knut Soerlien NOR Alexander Pakhomov RUS Cl. 6 1 (see below) Valeriyy Savin UKR Arsi Sjögren FIN Arsi Sjögren FIN Arsi Sjögren FIN 55-59 2 . . . . . . . . . . . Alf Tore Haug NOR Olav Hage NOR Arne Jens Jorgensen NOR Jan Ove Lomheim NOR 3 . . . . . . . . . . . Arnt Kato Eidem NOR Valeryy Savin UKR Anton Zapf GER Denis Kavli NOR Cl. 5 1 Vladimir Kondratyev RUS Per Ole Vik NOR Jack Gasienica USA Jack Gasienica (tie) USA Yury Mikhaylov RUS 50-54 2 Yury Mikhaylov RUS Jo Kaare Torvik NOR Rauno Komulainen FIN Markus Malvalehto(tie)FIN Vladimir Kongratyev RUS 3 Valeriy Begunov RUS Vladimir Ulyanov RUS Veijo Stranden FIN Rauno Komulainen FIN Kari Pesonen FIN Cl. 4 1 (see below) Matti Nykänen FIN Ole Andreas Skatvedt NOR Ole Andreas Skatvedt NOR Fidel Terentiev RUS 45-49 2 . . . . . . . . . . . Vladimir Saichik RUS Oyvind Villesvik NOR Oyvind Villesvik NOR Markku Jantunen FIN 3 . . . . . . . . . . . Axel Dorn GER Fidel Terentiev RUS Fidel Terentiev RUS Oyvind Villesvik NOR Cl. 3 1 (see below) Pietro Nilsson SWE Pasi Huttunen FIN Pasi Huttunen FIN Seppo Kinnunen FIN 40-44 2 . . . . . . . . . . . Sergey Medvedev RUS Seppo Kinnunen FIN Seppo Kinnunen FIN Konstantin Grigoryev RUS 3 . . . . . . . . . . . Laszlo Molnar HUN Pavel Kuzmin RUS Pavel Kuzmin RUS Pavel Kuzmin RUS Cl. 2 1 Markus Zurcher SWI Kalle Uusitalo FIN Bruno Reuteler SWI Knut Björnar Stroem NOR Lubos Chejchan CZE 35-39 2 Freddy Lemmerer AUT Klaus Sölkner AUT Rudolf Jerabek CZE Rudolf Jerabek CZE Jaanus Ritson EST 3 Alexsey Mironov RUS Peter Tuczai HUN Knut Björnar Stroem NOR Bruno Reuteler SWI Klaus Solkner AUT Cl. 1 1 . . . . . . . . . . . Marko Jokiniemi FIN Joakim Helland NOR Charlie Dorner AUT Ilkka Rahko FIN 30-34 2 . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Hoffmann GER Juha Nykänen FIN Joakim Helland NOR Martin Peer AUT 3 . . . . . . . . . . . Ilkka Rahko FIN Charlie Dorner AUT Juha Nykänen FIN Henry Hoffman GER Guests 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Jirotka CZE David Jirotka CZE 25-29 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ales Groma CZE Ales Groma CZE 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oldrich Nejedlo CZE Oldrich Nejedlo CZE Ladies 1 Heike Horack GER Heike Horack GER 2 Steffi Weixler AUT Steffi Weixler AUT 3 Nina Burgstaller AUT Nina Burgstaller AUT

That's all for IMC 2011. At the closing ceremonies, Chairman James Lambert called upon the Old Boys of the ski jumping world to assemble again in 2012 in Szczyrk, Poland for IMC-XXIII. [ Harrachov Ski Club ]     [ Harrachov Town ]       [ IMC-2010 ]         [ IMC Index ] [ International Masters ] [ USA Masters] [ Eastern US Jumping ] [ INDEX ] Copyright © 2011 All Rights Reserved