WORLDLOPPET NEWS FROM THE ANNUAL MEETING

 

Worldloppet annual general meeting held in theUS

WL and FIS Marathon Cup calendars approved

Italian Marcialonga still among main events

Worldloppet opens up to new smaller races in new countries

 

 

The Worldloppet annual general meeting was held in the century-old Lakewood Resort, northernWisconsin, in mid-June. During the two day long assembly, packed with meetings and group workshops, the delegates of the 16 Worldloppet member races discussed several topics. The 2013/2014 Worldloppet and FIS Marathon Cup calendars were approved. The Australian Kangaroo Hoppet will start off the WL series at the end of August this year, followed by Jiserská Padesatka inCzech Republic, American Birkebeiner – Open Track (USA),Austria’s Dolomitenlauf and Marcialonga in January 2014.

According to Worldloppet general regulations, only one race per nation, normally the biggest and most renowned is included in the calendar, and Marcialonga is certainly the queen of ski-marathons inItaly. The Worldloppet Federation was founded inUppsala(Sweden) in 1978 and Marcialonga was among the founding members, however, as Marcialonga General Director Gloria Trettel underlined, ‘being a Worldloppet member does not mean you only organise a race once a year. You need to provide modern infrastructures for thousands of people who gather in the area, and you have to be technically perfect. So far we’ve been keeping the right pace, and we are very proud to be still part of the Worldloppet family.’

At the beginning of June, Marcialonga sold out on the first day of registration. In about one hour the official website www.marcialonga.it received thousands of requests and the 7500 tickets available for next year’s race – scheduled on 26 January – were all gone.

Marcialonga is the fifth race of next season’s WL calendar and is followed by Vasaloppet, Engadin Skimarathon and König Ludwig Lauf, among others.

During the general meeting in Lakewood Resort, Worldloppet decided to open up to smaller long distance races all over the world. Races which are not able to fulfil minimum requirements to become a full Worldloppet member receive the opportunity to become an associated Worldloppet member, which allows them to learn from the more experienced races and share their know-hows with everyone else. At the moment, the following races have voiced their interest to become a WL associated member: Marcha Blanca & Ushaia Loppet (ARG), Merino Muster (NZL), Vasaloppet China (CHN) and Fossavatn (ISL). ‘It’s not easy to bring changes in big international organisations such as Worldloppet – WL General Secretary Angelo Corradini said – and this is a giant step I think. I am very happy that the meeting decided to take this road and open the door to smaller races which do not have yet the level of a Worldloppet Ski Federation full member. Our inspectors will be checking these new races and they will be hopefully joining next year’s meeting already scheduled inRiva del Garda,Italy.”

Info: www.marcialonga.it