2004 China Vasaloppet in Chuagchun, China
As a skier and tourist group, we skied every day in a four-day visit of Changchun, China.
Prior to Changchun, we visited Beijing, the capital of China, where the Sprint race
(pro men's division only) was held on December 30, 2003. In the Sprints, the #1 Swedes
who own the 2003 World Cup came 1st in the final race by 0.01 second over Lauri Pyykonnen
of Finland. Three days after the Sprints on Jan. 3, 2004, 22 Chinese, 21 Swedes,
15 Norwegians, 10 Finnish, 2 USA, 2 British, 2 Australian, 1 Estonian, and 1 Czech
participated in the 50K and 25K races. All of the Chinese men and women skiers in the
50K and 25K races are pros. 15 European skiers are pros. Jorgen Aukland of Norway
finished overall first (2:11:43) by 1 second ahead of Stanislav Rezak of Czech and
Oskar Svard of Sweden, the winner of 2003 race. Li Hongxue, Jiang Chunli, and
Wang Chunli of China are the top three women finishers with 2:30:37, 2:32:12, and
2:42:42, respectively. Melinda Silbernick of USA (Maple Grove, MN) finished the
1st place in the non-pro women division of the 50K race with her 3:31:08, topping
Sofia Hallmarker, a former pro from Sweden. Many skiers opted out of the 50K race
due to lack of training on snow in Europe this year and instead raced in 15K and
3K on the second day. Hot wired race results for the 50K and 25K races are available
HERE. The complete race results will be
posted on the official Swedish Vasaloppet website later.
Also, our own Chad Giese, the 5th place prize winner of the 2003 China Vasaloppet race,
was made on the China Vasaloppet race official stamp and on the largest ski poster of
the world along with the other top five winners from Sweden. Details of China Vasaloppet
2005 will be available at USA Mora Vasaloppet in February 2004.
Changchun, a city of 7 million people, is the capital city of Jilin province, one of
the three northeastern provinces of China. The race venue is located in Jingyuetan National
Forest Park, a 45-minute drive from downtown Changchun. The race course is a 25K loop of
trails. All races are classic only. The 50K is 2 laps of the loop. The course terrain is
similar to Sweden Mora Vasaloppet, USA Mora Vasaloppet, and Japan Vasaloppet, i.e. generally
flat with long gradual uphills and winding downhills in the woods. This year's race trails
were covered with mostly natural snow and some man-made snow at the trailhead areas.
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