2002 Harrachov CZE

The Old Boys of the ski jumping world gathered again in March 2002 in tiny Harrachov on the northern border of the Czech Republic for competition and for fellowship in the thirteenth annual International Masters Championship. IMC 2002 followed directly after the World Championships of ski flying held this year on the huge ski flying hill in Harrachov and many of the Masters competitors took the opportunity to arrive early and watch the World Cup lads, some of whom soared more than 200 meters, spending up to seven seconds in the air. Howling winds cancelled flying on two of the four scheduled days of jumping and in the end only four rounds were completed of the twelve scheduled rounds of training and competition. Throngs of raucous Polish fans of Adam Malysz tried to out-shout crowds of Germans supporting the eventual winner Sven Hannawald.

Harrachov 90, 70 and 40 Meter Hills

The big hills (K-185 and K-120) are high up on an open slope where wind is often a problem but down at village level a couple hundred meters to the east, one finds the cluster of three hills used for the IMC (K-90, 70, 40) sheltered by dense stands of tall spruce trees. These delightful jumps were used almost every day, even while the ski flying was impossible.

NOR 64 43 GER 29 9 CZE 27 8 FIN 27 32 RUS 14 7 SWE 12 4 EST 4 2 SVK 3 1 POL 2 0 USA 1 1 total 183 107

Hopes of increased participation from central Europe were realized as old boys from ten nations, along with wives and friends, filled hotels all over the village, the prime location being the Skicentrum Hotel, right on the outrun, which was home to half of the huge Norwegian delegation. This year's event marked the first participation of skiers from the Slovak republic and the return of Poland's flag to the opening parade. Of the record ten national teams, all but one went home with IMC medals. The exception was Poland, perhaps their national spirit was exhausted during the ski flying championship. Counts of participants and medals are shown in the table at the right.

Organizers scheduled IMC competitions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 14-16 with training on Tuesday and Wednesday and the Old Boys found good spring jumping conditions with cool nights and warm days. On these sheltered jumps, wind was never a problem but tracks were a bit slow until Saturday. Jumping conditions were very good as hill workers kept the landing hills well packed and renewed or refreshed the inrun tracks often.

Wednesday evening saw a short but pleasant opening ceremony on the 90 meter outrun, then competition started Thursday morning with fifty nine athletes from eight nations competing in seven age groups on the 90 meter hill. Jan Heiberg (NOR, Class 5, ages 50-54) thrilled the crowd by laying down the long ride of the day, 88.5 meters. A long 40 meter competition (122 competitors) followed in the afternoon. Aarne Kuisma (FIN, class 8) and Willy Johansen (NOR) continued a twelve year IMC rivalry, with Willy coming out on top by five points, and long time IMC competitor Magne Heistad came back from a five year layoff to win class 7.

Friday morning, 124 Old Boys answered the call for the 70 meter competition which lasted well into the afternoon and pushed back the scheduled 26 meter jump until three pm. Ingvart Törnängen, Jan Heiberg, Ari Raitoharu, Raimo Tuovinen, Jens-Griener Hiero and Arsi Sjögren all made made it two in a row, IMC co-founder Guttorm Bakke resumed his winning ways and Aarne Kuisma evened the score, finishing ahead of Willy Johansen.

Forejumpers, aged 7

The small hill jumping was held on a junior jump located in a village park about a kilometer west of the larger hills and is an officially unofficial part of IMC, held at the discretion of the IMC hosts and open only to jumpers over 60 years old. When competitors and fans arrived, they found a junior competition in progress on the neighboring 17 meter hill. When the kids were finished, three of the junior competitors moved to the larger jump and became forejumpers for the Grand Masters. One of these forejumpers was the son of Olympic medalist and Harrachov native Pavel Ploc and the seven year old showed that he had inherited ski jumping talent as he launched himself forward over a wide "V", then finished with a gorgeous telemark landing.

Of the nine Golden Oldies competing on the 26 meter hill, seven had also jumped in the 40 meter meet the previous day. The headliner was 89 year old Olai Lie of Norway who astonished onlookers with his skill on both the 26 and the 40. Awards were presented late in the afternoons of Thursday and Friday on the outrun of the 90 meter hill. Harrachov is home to a leading Bohemian glass producer established in 1712 so the prizes included, in addition to medals, beautiful crystal goblets engraved with the title and dates of the IMC.

Another optional but popular event is the team competition, held Saturday morning. National teams consist of six skiers, one from each of the first six age groups (or older). The rules permit filling out a team with jumpers from other nations and the Czech team included a skier from Slovakia and an oldie from USA. To save time, it was agreed that each competitor would have a trial jump and just one competitive jump. Norway flexed its muscles, winning the gold medal in a runaway, while a fall by Finnish star Ari Raitoharu permitted the German team to slip in for the silver. Final scores for the six competing teams were:

On Saturday evening, everyone gathered at the luxurious Hotel Svornost, up in the village, for a gourmet banquet. Before the food, there were awards for Saturday's competitions and afterward there were the usual speeches and finally, dancing. Over the prior twelve IMC's it has been common for the top skiers to visit the podium in two or more events and this year was no exception with six double gold medalists and hat tricks by Martti Korhonen and Ingvart Tornängen. (A full listing of medalists appears below.)

Complete IMC results for all competitions are posted in .pdf files (Acrobat Reader required): Warning -- I am unable to fetch these files with Netscape Navigator (IE is OK).

Special Jumping 26 meter 40 meter 70 meter 90 meter 70m team

Nordic Combined 26 meter 40 meter 70 meter XC..Final Result Index