July 12, 2010 (Otepaa, Estonia) – The Tehvandi Sports Center in Otepaa, Estonia, will host their first world ski championships next year – the FIS Nordic Junior/U23 XC Worlds. The site is already well known among the fans of cross-country skiing. In the past years, in addition to the annual FIS Cross-Country World Cup events and the Tartu Marathon, a Worldloppet race, the FIS Continental Cups in Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined have just staged their premiere events on the Tehvandi K90 jumping hill.

Representatives of the FIS Nordic disciplines visited Otepaa last week for a site inspection and to gain a detailed look into the preparations for the FIS Nordic Junior and U23 Cross-Country World Championships that will take place from January 25-31,  2011.

As part of the major renewal work, a new stadium has been constructed, new wax rooms are being built and the competition and media center will move to a newly-built stadium building. TV commentators will be provided with more comfortable and convenient working conditions above the stadium’s grandstand. The K90 ski jumping hill was completed in November 2007 and there is currently some contouring work being done to the Cross-Country tracks.

“The new stadium and facilities are very compact. Everything is very close to each other.” said Pierre Mignerey, Assistant FIS Race Director Cross-Country, who also used the visit as an opportunity to check on all areas of event organization from accommodation, transport, time-keeping, team invitation and beyond.

Horst Tielmann, Coordinator for the men’s Ski Jumping Continental Cup added: “The team in Otepaa was very well prepared and all the planned construction works such as the stadium re-construction will be completed in time.”