April 12, 2013 – The FIS Continental Cup series all over the world are some of the most important Cross-Country competitions as they allow the younger athletes to prepare themselves for the World Cup level in several ways. As a bonus, the Continental Cup winners earn the right to compete in the World Cup Final. Below is an overview of the COC standings for the 2012/13 season.

OPA Cup
The OPA Cup was again concluded in Toblach (ITA) after a series consisting of seven venues in five countries. This season was a great success for the German skiers who dominated the top 5 places in the overall ranking led by Franz Goering with 797 points. Second placed and runner-up Sebastian Eisenlauer collected 627 points whilst Lucas Boegl claimed third place with 596 points.

Also on the ladies’ side, the German skiers were dominant and occupied the top two positions with Monique Siegel claiming the Cup with 836 points, 113 points ahead of the second best and compatriot Sandra Ringwald. Spaniard Laura Orgue took an excellent third overall with 668 points.

Scandinavian Cup
This season’s Scandinavian Cup included five different venues across Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Over the course of the years, the Norwegians have dominated the top of this series and this season the Norwegian men occupied top four spots as Tomas Northug won the series ahead of Snorri Einarsson and Hans Christer Holund.

The top nine of the Scandinavian Cup on the ladies side were purely Norwegian business led by Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes who topped the podium with 766 points before Tuva Toftdahl and Britt Ingunn Nydal.

USSA Super Tour
The US SuperTour is currently still underway with two competitions remaining at Lake Tahoe (USA) to conclude the season finals. Rosie Brennan and Michael Sinnot are leading the overall standings prior to the last competitions on 11th April.

Haywood NorAm
In a very tight competition until the last races of the season in Mont St. Anne (CAN), Amanda Ammar and her Canadian compatriot Jesse Cockney took the titles in the North American Cup just 9 and 8 points ahead of their closest contenders. Ammar scored a total of 816 points while Cockney took 915 points which earned them the titles in front of Kate Brennan (807) and Alysson Marshall (763) on the ladies’ side, and Graham Nishikawa (937) and Michael Somppi (928) on the men’s side.

Far East Cup
The Far East Cup 201/13 featured three venues this season at the Alpensia Resort (KOR), Otoineppu and Sapporo (both JPN).

On the ladies’ side, Naoko Omori claimed the overall Cup victory with 380 points. Chisa Obayashi finished second, only 5 points behind the winner while Yuki Kobayashi took third with 360 points.

Among the men, last year’s runner-up Nobu Naruse was the strongest competitor and won the series with 401 points. Keishin Yoshida picked up 380 points and took second place with Akira Lenting repeating his strong performance from last year finishing third in the overall standings of the Far East Cup with 331points.

Balkan Cup
The Balkan Cup has seen its conclusion in Dvorista-Pale (BIH) at the end of March. Bulgaria’s Veselin Tzinzov clearly won the men’s series ahead of two Croatians Edi Dadic and Andrej Buric.

The standings were reversed for the ladies where Croatia topped the ranking as Vedrana Malec collected 460 points ahead of Bulgaria’s Teodora Malcheva who claimed the runner-up position and Antoniya Grigorova-Burgova in third overall with 380 points.

Eastern Europe Cup
The Eastern Europe Cup included the venues of Vershina Tea, Krasnogorsk, Kahrkiv (both UKR), Moscow and Syktyvkar (both RUS). Sergey Novikov claimed the overall victory with 394 points ahead of Vladislav Skobelev in second whilst Sergey Shiriaev took third place.

On the ladies’ side, last year’s winner Elena Soboleva (RUS) repeated her overall victory ahead of Marina Chernousova and Daria Godovanichenko.

Slavic Cup
This season’s Slavic Cup, which concluded in Zakopane (POL), was almost all about Czech and Slovakian Cross-Country skiers.

Six venues hosted competitions as Daniela Kotschova (SVK) topped the ladies’ ranking in front of two Polish skiers, Agnieszka Szymanczak in second and Martyna Galewicz in third place.

Jiri Horcicka of the Czech Republic won the men’s standings having collected 676 points. His compatriot Ondrej Horyna finish 127 points behind and took second place and Poland’s Jan Antolec defended his third place from last year with 500 points.