The X-Challenge is a race for big and small over the ski jump
“The other way around” was the motto last Friday when Hans-Peter Ess and Günther Ernst, the two initiators of the X-Challenge, invited schools and private individuals to tackle the Montafon ski jumps from bottom to top. While entire school classes from primary and secondary schools were invited to take part in the competition in the morning, private individuals and clubs had the opportunity to face this mountain running challenge in the afternoon.
Unfortunately, the weather gods had no mercy on the numerous athletes and left his floodgates open for almost the entire day, so that the whole event was a rather wet affair. A total of around 500 students from 15 different schools took part in the School X Challenge. However, there were no individual ratings. The times of a school class were added together and then simply announced to the school classes step by step. “Here the focus should be on the team spirit and not the performance of the individual,” says Elmar Egg, the managing director of the ski jumping facility in Montafon. In addition, great non-cash prizes were raffled off among the respective school levels. In any case, it was an exciting experience for the kids and with loud cheers from their classmates, they all managed to run up the jump tables of different heights.
“It was really steep, but I’m proud that I made it. I’m actually not that sporty and I was a bit nervous at the start,” explains 10-year-old Yara from the Tschagguns elementary school, with a bright red face and a sweaty face. Whether her long hair got so wet from the rain or from the exertion cannot be determined with certainty. “The weather was no problem for the run. I prefer it that way to sun and heat,” she explains with a laugh. In the afternoon, too, the participants were highly motivated despite the rain. And actually everyone is a winner who comes up the take-off table and hits the top, no matter what time.
