On April 4-5 the fourth edition of the Sprint Tour Grand Prix – main spring event in Russian skiing – will take place in Yugorsk. 30 skiers from 8 countries will be fighting for the prize pot of Sprint Tour.
Yugorsk is the most western city of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District and a center of natural gas transporting system. It is located in the basin of Uh and Ess rivers, which are tributaries of river Konda. Sprint Tour takes place there on a regular basis. Local stadium of Gazprom Transgaz Yugorsk company is an ideal place for Cross-Country skiing competitions.
The 4th edition of the Sprint Tour promises unique races, new to the skiing sport. On the evening of April 4 there will be a skiathlon, and on April 5 – supersprint elimination. As a result, there will be eight prize-winning athletes.
Many big names of Cross-Country skiing have signed up for the Sprint Tour 2012. From Russia, Olympic champion Nikita Kriukov; Olympic and World Cup skier Alexey Petukhov; Mikhail Devjatiarov jun. and Anton Gafarov; champion of Russia 2012 in sprint Igor Usachev; multiple winner and medalist of Junior and Youth World Championships Evgeniy Belov; winner of the 2009 World Student Games, the multiple winner and medalist of Russian Championship Sergey Turyshev.
From Estonia there will be participant of three World Championships and 2010 Olympics Timo Simonlatser; medalist of the Olympics and World Cup, the legend of Estonian cross-country skiing Jaak Mae; the rising star of the Estonian sprint Raido Ränke.
From Finland, the 2011 Champion of Finland in sprint Martti Jylha and 2012 Vice Champion of Finland in sprint Matias Strandvall will be at the start.
Federico Pellegrino and Renato Pasini of Italy will test their skills and luck in Yugorsk together with Nikolay Chebotko and Denis Volotka. Tim Tscharnke and Dusan Kozasek are going to represent Germany and the Czech Republic.
Live TV Broadcast
TV channel «Yugra» will be transmitting live all the stages of the Sprint Tour 2012. You can also follow the races on the internet at In the course of the Grand-Prix «Sprint Tour» races live television broadcast of all the stages will be provided by the , as well as on-line Internet translation at http://www.ugra-tv.ru/sprint-tour.php on April 4 and April 5.
Find out more about Sprint Tour on: http://skisprint.com/
Contributed by Andrey Kascha, OC Sprint Tour
