February 13, 2009 (Liberec, Czech) – In just six days, the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 will begin in the Bohemian city Liberec (Cze). After years of intensive preparations, Liberec is ready for its grand premiere and looking forward to welcoming the Nordic ski world to the event, scheduled from 18th February-1st March. These Championships will be the most prestigious sports event to have taken place in the history of the independent Czech Republic. It will also be the biggest TVevent in the history of Czech Television (CT), the host broadcaster. CT expects to produce more than 60 hours of international coverage with the help of a total of 54 TV cameras connected with 60 kilometers of cables.

The 2009 Worlds promise to be a great spectacle with much in store for the 635 participants from 62 nations, also a new record! Besides the traditional Nordic skiing strongholds of Norway, Sweden or Russia, athletes from some more exotic Nordic ski countries have registered including teams from Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, India and Iran, just to mention a few.

In Cross-Country, a qualification race (5km/10km for ladies and men, respectively) for the interval start competitions will for the first time take place on the opening day, 18th February. The best 10 athletes per gender will be able to compete in the championship interval start races scheduled on 19th (ladies 10km) and 20th (men 15km). The courses have a snow cover of some 50 cm (20″) and are in the process of being fine-tuned in order to be race ready. Substantial snow reserves will help guarantee the best conditions even if a warm weather spell should cross over the Jizera Mountains in the next few days.

For more information, visit www.liberec2009.com