On February 24th 2009 the organizers of the World Cup Final in Jekaterinburg in Russia will be able to relax and look back to a premiere in the Natural Track World Cup history. For the first time ever Russia will host a final event.

Recently Josef Ploner, head of the Technical Commission, paid a visit to the Ural and reported about the progress at the brand new track.

“The basic layout of the track has been completed, start and finish buildings are ready”, he said. “The organizers are very ambitious, but they do not have any experience how to organize a world cup race, so it is very important that during the next months we give them all the support we can. In September the Russian coach Andrej Knyr will go there for another inspection.”

Jekaterinburg is located 1800km away from Moscow and with 1.3 million inhabitants it is the fourth biggest city in Russia. The track is being built 70 km outside of Jekaterin burg. Only three kilometres away in Novo Uralsk uranium is mined. “But to go there you need a special permit in addition to the Russian visa, it is a closed complex”, says Ploner.

The World Cup Final will be held February 19th to 24th 2009.