Almaty will host Ski Jumping World Cup stage in 2012

Almaty will host a stage of the Ski Jumping World Cup in 2012, Tengrinews.kz reports, referring to Andrey Verveykin, president of Kazakhstan Ski Jumping Federation. “We have very sucessfully hosted a stage of the Continental Cup in December. The ski-jump is in excellent condition, and we were lucky that the weather was nice during the competition. Now we are planning to host the World Cup in December next year,” Verveykin said. However, the International Ski Jumping Federation pointed out one shortcoming in the tournament held in Almaty. “There were too little spectators who came to cheer up our ski-jumpers. The World Federation says that crowded stands are crucial for the World Cup,” Kazakhstan Federation president added. Participants of the competition praized the quality of the ski-jump. Sergey Zubkov said that Almaty ski-jump was much better than the one in Finland. “We’ve been to the competition in Finland just recently. It is much better here. We haven’t got such a state-of-the-art ski-jump even in Russia. That’s why we want to hold Russian championships in your country. And then, when a ski-jump in Sochi is constructed, we will invite you to our country as our guests,” Zubkov said. The Continental Cup Stage was held on December 13-14. Ski jumpers from Norway, Austria, Slovenia, Czechia, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan took part in the championship. Participation in the Continental Cup that consists of 12 stages allows the sportsmen to gain points to enter high-class competitions such as the World Cup. Being the host-country Kazakhstan was represented by many athletes at the Championship.