by VK
The program of test competitions at Sochi Olympic facilities will include two significant games in 2012: the Russian Freestyle Cup on February 22-29 and the European Cup on March 1-7. Russian Chief Coach for freestyle Alexey Pokashnikov described preparations for the first test matches on the skiing complex of Roza-Khutor.
Preparations for the test games are going according to schedule approved by the inter-department commission and according to the schedule of the Russian Freestyle Federation. A trilateral agreement was reached between the Federation, the Roza-Khutor center and the Department for Sports Events of the Russian Ministry for Sports and Tourism. The Freestyle Federation is responsible for organizing the competitions. Freestyler Pavel Krotov said that the International Freestyle Federation gave high rating to readiness for the competitions in Sochi and believes that it would be one of the world’s best Olympic facilities. International registration of the Roza-Khutor complex as an Olympic facility is planned for spring 2012. Thus, the Russian and European Freestyle Cups will be sort of an exam for the resort, the Federation and freestylers.
Alexey Pokashnikov, Chief Coach of the Russian National Freestyle Team, expressed satisfaction with preparations of freestylers for the games. He noted that they had won 4 medals last year and won 6 this year before even reaching the second half of the season. “Certainly there is a lot more to do. But I know that this year has a good basis for our team to show good, serious results on world competitions in the future”, the chief coach reckons. He believes that freestylers have not shown all their skills because new elements, they have not got used to yet, were added to the program this year. Pokashnikov said that the national team needs to improve skills and increase complexity of jumps, in terms of acrobatics. In his opinion, final conclusions should wait for the season to end to compare results with the previous year’s ones.
These will be the first competitions in the region, moreover, the Russian National Freestyle Team will try the Olympic program for the first time. In fact, all the best Russian freestylers will take part in the games. Then, coaches will plan their further activities for the upcoming season. “It all looks great on the paper, the same concerns the earth, but it is completely different on snow”, Pokashnikov notes.
