Northern Europe, Asia May Be Home to New World Cup Events

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Scandinavia, Asia May Be Home to New World Cup Events

Proposed Calendar Includes Events in Sweden, Denmark and China

By Robert "Just the Factoids" Burnson

The World Inline Cup may be rolling into new territories next year.

According to its newly posted calendar, China will have its own event in 2006. So will Sweden, Denmark and the beer capital of Germany: Munich.

But don't start dreaming of beer mugs yet. The calendar is bound to be revised significantly before the start of the season in April.

A note on the calendar cautions that "changes are possible." But that's an understatement. Changes, in fact, are inevitable.

Most of the 24 events on the calendar are still in the planning stages. And if last year is any indication, a number of the events will fall off the schedule before the season opener April 9th in Seoul.

Multi-Race Days

Obvious places where cuts will be made are spots on the calendar crowded by two or more top-class events. (There are three such dates currently: July 1st, Sept. 12th and Sept. 16th.)

World Cup rules allow only one top-class event per weekend. So it is clear that Iguana Think Tank, the Swiss company that runs the World Cup, is expecting some of the events to disappear.

The Northshore?

It is unclear what Iguana is thinking as far as the Northshore Inline Marathon is concerned.

The marathon in Duluth, Minn., is the only World Cup event in North (or South) America. But it shares a date (Sept. 16th) on the calendar with two new events: the Odense (pronounced: O-den-tha) World Cup in Denmark and the Salzburg World Cup in Austria.

The Northshore has already started registering skaters for the 2006 event. So it seems unlikely that it could — or would — move to another date.

So either it is going to have to give up its World Cup status or the other two events will have to be dropped from the calendar or rescheduled.

WIC to Invade Scandinavia?

If it takes place, the Odense event will be the first World Inline Cup ever held in Denmark.

The first event in Scandinavia will, according to the calendar, come on July 1st in Stockholm, Sweden.

But again, don't count on it.

The calendar lists two other events for July 1st: the subclass Vallee de Joux marathon in Switzerland and a new top-class event: the Salzburg World Cup in Austria.

According to the World Cup rule book, two events of any kind cannot be held on the same day. So two of the events will have to be rescheduled.

(Continued ...)

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