Dec. 1, 2005 (Sovereign Lake, B.C.) – As the snow continues to fall at Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre, all systems are go for the Viessmann FIS World Cup races on Dec 10 and 11. “It’s beginning to look a lot like World Cup,” commented Toby Oswald Felker, Event Committee Chair.

Twenty three countries will be in attendance, with 165 athletes. Most of the “Red Group”, the world’s top thirty seeded male and female racers in the distance and sprint categories will participate, including Norway’s Marit Bjoergen and Tor Arne Hetland, current World Cup leaders.

Canada’s National Team athletes are overjoyed to be competing in World Cup races in their own backyard and looking forward to familiar faces in the crowd cheering them on.

Drew Goldsack commenteds, “My parents have never seen me skiing live in an international competition, they will be here and that makes me very happy.”

The Canadian team has been training on the new World Cup trails at Sovereign Lake and feel that they will be challenging enough.

“The courses are deceptive” says Sarah Renner, “they are so wide that they look a lot less steep, but once you’re on the climbs, you realize that is not the case.”

Dave Wood, the National Team coach, feels that hosting World Cup events outside of Europe and Scandinavia will become the way of the future. “Europeans don’t really like to travel, but once they race here and see for themselves the quality of snow and organization, they will on board with the trend.”