Following an invitation of the Georgian Government, FIS Race Director visited the traditional winter sports resort of Bakuriani this week, where a ski jumper center shall be built over the next years.

"I'm very happy that I had the chance to visit Bakuriani. Bakuriani is one of the most famous in ski jumping worldwide and with Koba Tsakadze a legend of the sport is living here. We visited the old facilities and we want to convince the government to renovate the hills", Walter Hofer told.

The first hill in Bakuriani was already built in 1935, in 1969 the facility was completey reconstructed and four new hills (K115, K90, K70, K45) were built. In the 1970s international competitions were held in Georgia. 2001 national championships took place on the K45, since then the small hill was used for training purposes only.

For three years there have now been plans to renovate the facility so it will again meet the international standards, but so far there has not been any progress. With the visit of Walter Hofer the project is now moving forward.

And the Austrian, who presented plans for the development of the infrastructure in Bakuriani to the Georgian Minister of Economic Affairs and officials of the national ski association, is confident that ski jumping will return to Georgia in the near future. "We hope that we will be able to carry out international competitions here in the medium term of three to five years."

Source: fis-ski.com