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1999 Swedish Ski Club Cross Country Championship

The annual Swedish Ski Club Cross Country Ski championships were held at Skibo on Sunday, March 7. With a start temperature in the low 20's, a glorious blue sky, and soft, dry new snow, the conditions were perfect.

Participation, with the exception of Einar Ulfsson who returned to Connecticut on Saturday in order to be with his expecting Ellyn, was also perfect. Thus with only a minimum of the typical wimpy complaining, all of participants in Saturday's giant slalom race at Bromley forewent the prospect of untracked fresh powder at Stratton in order to compete in the Nordic event.

The course, which had been designed on Saturday by Tom Jahn and tracked on race morning by Hans Tuneblom, Ann Jochnick and Carl Jahn, was in south side trail system. A 3.5 km loop that twice wound in and out of the woods and the field, it had enough curves and hills to be challenging yet, by staying above the powerline, it was negotiable by all. As Klas Holm gasped after completing his first of two loops, it was "a man sized course".

With the fresh snow and cold temperature (the latter of which seemed to have a particular affect on Hans who was wearing Eskil Tuneblom's memorable skin tight, blue and yellow Banana Boat racing suit), there was not the usual dissembling in the wax room prior to the start (this might have been due to the absence of Adolph Jochnick who was, unfortunately, in Sweden). All of the racers with waxable skis heeded Tom Jahn's blue kick wax recommendation and, although Tom himself was seen making surreptitious last minute changes to his own wax, everyone seemed pretty satisfied the blue selection.

While the results in the table below describe pretty accurately the race outcome, it should noted that both before and after the race, there was considerable talk concerning the category in which participants should be grouped. While most racers agreed that age and gender should generally be a factor, there were also more specific categorization suggestions. For example, one racer felt that skiers using the club's wooden skis and three pin boots and bindings deserved a special category. Another felt that cigar smoking racers in their sixties with a bad right knee deserved a category as well. There were also specific, if irregular, age bracket recommendations from Christine Holm and Cindy Tuneblom. While all valid suggestions, which the SSC board may wish to take up at the next meeting, Sunday's results using more conventional categorizing are as follows.

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