Thursday – Interval Start

The 2022 ASAA State Cross Country Skiing Championships will be held on the Jim Whisenhant Ski Trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area hosted by Lathrop High School Malemutes, and organized by the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, February 24-25-26.

The first event of the ASAA Nordic Ski Championships is the interval start event. The distances for this event are 7.5Km for boys and 5Km for girls.  This event alternates between classic technique and free technique from one year to the next.  The order of the genders also alternates between one year and the next.

In this event skiers start at 30 second intervals.  They are ranked based upon their elapsed time over the course, not on the order they cross the finish line.

A skier’s finish rank in the interval start event determines his or her start position and bib number in Friday’s mass start event.  The winner on Thursday starts with bib #1 in position #1; the runner up with bib #2 in position #2, etc.

For 2022 the interval start event will be held in free technique.  The girls’ 5Km will start at 11:00AM and the boys’ 7.5Km will start at 2:00PM.  The girls will ski one lap of a 5Km course. The boys will ski the same 5Km loop as the girls, then ski the second half of that loop a second time..

A skier’s results in the interval start event and the mass start event are combined to determine the ASAA Skimeister.

SPECTATOR INFO

The ski stadium of the Jim Whisenhant Trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area is one of the best places in the world to watch ski races.  A spectator can stay in the stadium or walk 100m-200m and see competitors multiple times over the duration of the competition.  Because the course comes and goes so frequently to and from the stadium, and because specatators are so close to the action our spectator policy is this:  SPECTATING ON FOOT ONLY – SPECTATORS ARE NOT ALLOWED ON SKIS.  This is to ensure the safety of the competitors, as well as to ensure a fair competition for all.  We appreciate your adherence to this policy.

Links to information for all days of the championships

• Thursday, February 24 – Interval start free technique 7.5Km for boys, 5Km for girls
• Friday, February 25 – Mass start classic technique 10Km for boys, 7.5Km for girls
• Saturday, February 26 – Relay mixed technique (Cl-Cl+Fr-Fr) 4 x 3Km for girls and 4 x 5Km for boys