Chairman of the Municipal Board: "We are obviously disappointed"

On Saturday, the news came: the International Ski Federation (IBU) will cancel the planned World Cup competitions in Östersund on 3–6 December.

Instead, this year's competitions will be held in Kontiolahti in Finland and Hochfilzen in Austria.

This means that the competitions that were planned for Östersund and French Annecy Le Grand Bornard will not end.

Sweden could not guarantee entry

According to the Swedish Biathlon Federation, the decision is justified, among other things, by the fact that Finland and Austria could guarantee that the participants could travel into the country - a guarantee that Sweden could not give.

Now the chairman of Östersund's municipal board, Bosse Svensson, is harshly criticizing the Swedish government.

"We are obviously disappointed.

Disappointed not to host the competitions.

But perhaps above all disappointed with the government's attitude ", he writes in a press release.

"Pure nonchalance"

Bosse Svensson believes that both the municipality of Östersund and the Swedish biathlon federation were prepared to carry out a corona-secured competition, but since they were never informed about the entries, it never became relevant.

"We would have had to respect a no from the government, but not answering anything at all is actually pure indifference," writes Bosse Svensson.

Not fully run

But the hope of competitions in Östersund is not completely dead - IBU has asked Sweden and other organizers to be ready if the pandemic situation means that the competition schedule needs to be changed during the season.

Both Östersund and the Swedish Biathlon Federation now announce that they are ready for such a scenario:

"We choose to be hopeful, but then the government must also make a quick decision and not let other countries run ahead of us," says Rikard Grip, Secretary General of the Swedish Biathlon Federation in a press release.