At the moment, Norway is hosting the (WSC) World Nordic Ski Championships 2011. This is the biggest public event in Norway since the 1994 Lillehammer winter olympics.( For more information on WSC please see www.oslo2011.no). Now, Kosovo has the pleasure of presenting their own winter wonderland. On the 18th -20th March 2011 Kosovo will have their first ever snowboard cross-competition with an expected 2000 spectators. The cup wil be held in Brezovica, a beautiful mountain area located about 60 km from Pristina International airport.
The cup is being hosted by Scardus extreme sports association. Srdjan Slavkovic, a member of Scardus stated that there will be ”about 50 competitors from the Balkan region including Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia.” When asked about what their expectations were for the cup and what this means for Kosovo, Slavkovic replied with that “We expect to establish this competition as a traditional regional gathering of snowboarders. Their passion for the mountain and snow should help in breaking boundaries that exist in the region. We also want to revive Brezovica that was neglected for over a decade. This is a big step for Kosovo's snowboard/ski community since events of this scale didn't happen in Kosovo since 1999. This event will help to again put Brezovica and Kosovo on snowboarding and skiing maps of Europe” Below is a google maps picture of the track taken during summertime:
Photo: Google.com.
The three day event has a full programme and is as follows: Grand opening at 10:00 on friday 18th March. There wil also be a draw of competitors and a piste trial. Saturday 19th March at 09:00 the qualifications begin and at 14:00 there will be a snowboard celebrity show. On sunday 20th March the final race will begin at 09:00 and the competition will conclude with an award and closing ceremony at 14:00. There is also prize money to be won with a total of 5000 euro distributed as follows: 1st place 3000 euro, 2nd place 1300 euro and 3rd place 700 euro. There will be bands and djs including: Conquering Lion, Popecitelji, Ergen, Neizdat DJ’s, Besa, Shrink FM, Chiod and Panda. For more information see: www.Sbxbrezovica.com