Nordic Roundup: 13 U.S. for Oberstdorf; Renner's tsunami help; Graves wins in LP

Nordic Roundup: 13 U.S. for Oberstdorf; Renner’s tsunami help; Graves wins in LP{mosimage}FIS officials have homolgated — a fancy word meaning “approved” — the large hill jump for the 2006 Olympics. Formal approval came January 8, Torino2006 officials said.

That means the jumping and nordic combined World Cups, set for February 11-12, will proceed without a hiccup. Each sport will have a team competition while combined also will have a sprint and jumping has a 140-meter individual jumping event. And then everyone will pack up and head to Oberstdorf, Germany, for the start of the nordic World Championships February 17.

Renner donates winnings

There isn’t a lot of money in cross-country ski racing in North American but Canadian Olympic racer Sara Renner didn’t hesitate following the recent tsunami that devastated so many. When she won a Haywood Canada Cup race in a snowstorm January 6 in Canmore, Alberta, she donated her winnings for tsunami relief. “I’m happy I was able to earn a little extra cash to donate,” she said.

Graves Wins in LP

Willy Graves, 18, a nordic combined skier from Putney, Vermont, who’s a senior at National Sports Academy in Lake Placid, made a semi-hometown victory when he won the New Year’s Day Masters ski jumping event.

The event, run every year by the Olympic Regional Development Authority, who owns and operates facilities from the 1980 Winter Games, marked the conclusion of the inaugural Art Devlin Cup, a tribute to the ex-Olympic jumper from Lake Placid – and longtime voice of ski jumping on television who died last year. Winner of the cup was Anders Johnson, 15, who also had won a regional 120-meter jumping event New Year’s Eve at the MacKenzie-Intervale Jumping Complex. (Graves was fourth in the New Year’s Eve meet.) Lindsey Van won the women’s meet each day; women jumped from a higher start.