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The Aukland brothers hungry for more medals

Rezac, Ahrlin, Södergren and Svärd to battle it out

Seraina Boner number one favourite amongst women

Several Olympic and World champions at the start next January

 

 

Jørgen Aukland might become Marcialonga’s golden boy. Norwegian ski-marathon specialist will be wearing bib number 1 at the start of 2014 Marcialonga amongst the Dolomites, and above all will be aiming to grab the fifth gold medal in career at the Italian cross country skiing event. Last January Jørgen won the 70k CT ski-marathon ahead of Stanislav Rezac and Anders Aukland, and equalised Italian Maurilio De Zolt by seizing the fourth gold. As said, next January he could break the male record and jump on the highest step of the podium for the fifth time, opponents permitting.

On Sunday 26 January Czech Rezac and Jørgen’s brother Anders will show up in Moena (Trentino region) all guns blazing, and the Swedes will be along with them. Jörgen Brink, Oskar Svärd, Jimmie Johnsson, Anders Södergren and Jerry Ahrlin will certainly try to bring back home Marcialonga’s title, even if Norway’s Jens Arne Svartedal, Simen Oestensen and Audun Laugaland, or Italy’s Nicola Morandini and Cristian Zorzi will battle it out.

On the women’s side, last season’s winner Seraina Boner of Switzerland is number one favourite, but watch out for Laila Kveli (NOR), Tatiana Jambaeva (RUS), or Sandra Hansson and 2012 winner Susanne Nyström of Sweden.

Thomas Alsgaard and Bente Skari are two of the most successful skiers of all time, they won several World and Olympic titles, both were crowned World Champions twice in Val di Fiemme ten years ago, and both also raised many overall and sprint World Cups in career. Having said that, the two Norwegian athletes will be at the start of the 41st Marcialonga next year together with some other former World and Olympic champions, such as Per Elofsson, Terje Langli, Trude Dybendhal and Russian Evgenij Dementev and Vasilij Rotchev.

Marcialonga is part of the FIS Marathon Cup, the 2014 Worldloppet circuit and Swix Ski Classics series.

Several side events will be taking place on Saturday 25 January, 2014 at the XC stadium in Lago di Tesero, such as Minimarcialonga for kids, Marcialonga Young for young categories and Marcialonga Stars supporting the Italian Association against Cancer (Lega contro i Tumori). On Saturday morning the Marcialonga Story 2nd edition will kick off from the XC stadium with hundreds of skiers in vintage outfit celebrating over 40 years of cross country skiing in Italy. Entries are open through the official Marcialonga webpage www.marcialonga.it