Sunday, September 23, 2007

Indoor ski-jump

A Finnish town near the Arctic circle, already covered by snow for most of the year, is planning to build the country's biggest ski jumping hill – indoors.

"Last year, half the flying hill contests in Europe had to be cancelled due to weather conditions," Erkki Keski-Nisula, the mayor of Ylitornio, said. "Our indoor hill could be used as a substitute venue for those events."

The mayor said the plans envisaged three different size hills and jumps on the largest, to be used for ski flying, could exceed 230 metres. Project costs were put at about 30 million euros.

"As an idea, it is fantastic, we could really move ski jumping forward with this hill," said Janne Marvaila, ski jumping official at the Finnish Ski Association.

Ylitornio's mayor said the town hoped also to set up an international ski jumping high school.

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