Poland ski jumping team 'definitely wants to go to China on Olympic trial'

WARSAW - The Poland ski jumping team would like to compete in the Olympic trials, which are scheduled for 13-14 November in Zhangjiakou, China, said the secretary of the Polish Ski Association.

The Olympic trial will be a part of the FIS ski jumping Continental Cup. Poland hasn't yet taken a formal decision about participation but the authorities of the Polish Ski Association hope that their best ski jumpers will go to China in November.

"We will definitely want to be there, the question is which jumpers will perform. There is a high probability that we, as well as other teams, will send the first squad there. And they will immediately go from China to the FIS World Cup in Nizhny Tagil, Russia," Jan Winkiel, the secretary of the Polish Ski Association, said in an interview for Polish TV on Thursday.

"The difficulty that the competitors will have to face is the height above sea level. The jump is approx. 1500 meters, and the cross-country tracks are even 300 meters higher. It will be worth finding out how the body works in such conditions," Winkiel added.

The Olympic trial will be played a week before the start of the FIS World Cup. However, Grzegorz Sobczyk, who is the assistant of the ski jumping team coach Michal Dolezal, emphasized that the intense calendar doesn't complicate the situation.

"Traveling so far is always difficult logistics. We still have time to determine it precisely. Of course, we are talking about the next winter and we will be ready for any eventuality, but these are preliminary discussions. November is already a month when most of the ski jumpers are optimally prepared for the competition," Sobczyk commented.