Martin Koukal and Bjørn Dæhlie at the Jizerské 50 starting line

The organisers presented a new face of the event, the winner of the fifty-kilometre marathon at the 2003 World Championship in Val di Fiemme, Martin Koukal, who will soon return to competition after a shoulder injury. “I take long-distance cross-country skiing as a pleasant diversion and relaxation. I want to help the Jizerská reach the level of, for example, the Vasa race, which runs literally through the whole of Sweden,” said the 29-year-old national representative at a press conference which was held on October 16 in Prague with the participation of sports journalists and representatives of the Ski Club Jizerská 50, the event’s general partner Patria Direct and marketing partner Mather Activation.

The elite skiers taking part in the Patria Direct Jizerské 50 will include the most remarkable figure in northern skiing of all time, the eight-time Olympic champion and nine-time world champion Nor Bjørn Dæhlie. “His active career has ended, but he always maintains an exceptional level of performance. If he comes, he will certainly aspire to place in the top hundred,” said the most successful athlete of the Winter Olympics, Martin Koukal.

The book “The Hunt for Gold”, which Bjørn Dæhlie published in 1998, became an immediate bestseller in Norway and in a survey on the best Norwegian athletes of the 20th century, he emerged victorious with a huge lead over speed-skaters Johann Olav Koss and Hjalmar Andersen. During his visit to the Czech Republic, Bjørn Dæhlie will have the possibility to view the representative spaces of Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. The day before the race, on Saturday, January 12, 2008, he will go to Liberec, where an autograph session will take place.

The organisers of the Patria Direct Jizerské 50 also introduced a new aspect of the race in the form of chip technology, which will enable the comfortable and continual start of several thousand racers and will not distort the racers’ times, as can happen in mass starts.

Another new aspect is the inclusion of the Patria Direct Jizerské 50 in the Ski Tour. Within the Ski Tour, the results of skiers in the four most important cross-country skiing events in the Czech Republic will be aggregated and the Tour will thus in essence be a sort of Czech “world” cup. “Through the Patria Direct Jizerské 50 we are attempting to continually increase the public’s interest in cross-country skiing in the Czech Republic,” said Marek Tesař of the agency Mather Activation, which is co-organising the race.