In the last week I have competed in two Summer Grand Prix's. One in Oberwiesenthal, Germany and another in Villach, Austria. In order to compete in Oberwiesenthal I had to jump into the top 50 in the Provisional Round. I jumped into 31st place qualifying me to compete last Saturday. On Saturday I had a pretty good jump but started in 37th place! This showed me how high the level of competition is at the World Cup level. On the Continental Cup (World Cup B) a jump like that would have started me in the top 20 for sure. The race didn't go as well as I was hoping. I was desperately trying to hang onto people but just couldn't hang with anyone long enough to move up the standings. After being stuck at the back with nobody to ski with, I got lapped by the leaders and my day was over. I was extremely disappointed because last years Grand Prix ended the same way. Luckily, 3 days later I had a chance to redeem myself Villach. Bryan Fletcher, Taylor Fletcher, and Bill Demong were also competing in this next Grand Prix. there was no qualification. That was lucky for me because I got disqualified in the Provisional Round on Tuesday. My suit was too large so after some adjustments were made to it, I was ready to compete on Wednesday. I had a jump of 88 meters on the 90 meter hill. This was another very solid jump and started me in 31st position out of 70 competitors. I was determined to hang on in the race. My skate skiing has made a lot of improvements over the summer and I knew I could compete at this level. The race went a lot better. I ended up skiing back to 56th place. I know that doesn't sound great but It's improvement. I finished under 3 minutes behind the winner and my cross country time was only a minute or two slower than some of the best Nordic Combined Skiers in the world. I gained a lot of experience in this competition and look forward to improving upon these results this winter. With only a couple days left in Europe the trip is almost over. My team is now residing in Planica, Slovenia with members of the VIP Trip. The members of the VIP Trip traveled to Slovenia in order to enjoy the beautiful scenery and watch my team compete and train. The last few days will be spent roller skiing and running on the amazing terrain offered in Planica. The 50 km bike path into Italy is my new favorite roller ski. Thank you to the NNF and everyone else making this amazing trip possible- Ben Berend
1 Comment
12/1/2016 05:31:23 am
I love this sport as this will enhance the part of the mind that is responsible for the movements and concentration. This sport enhance our skills as well. The event that happened in Australia is a thing that we all must look forward to. I am glad that I have seen this post and this post will be shared to my friends and cousins.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2019
Categories |