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Tomorrow is D-day. Who are the favourite teams?
On the day after the first day of races and having a look at the standings we’ll try to predict the favourite nations for the team title. On Friday the category 1 athletes will race in special slalom and category 2 in giant slalom. Only at the end of these two events we’ll know who will be the World Champion School.
GIANT SLALOM
Category 1 girls  
The Ski College Bachmann of Tarvisio (Italy) is holding the lead in category 1 girls. The overall time is 5’00.78, (obtained summing up the best three times of each run), ahead of Austria’s Skimittleschule (5’03.01) second, while College Saint Exupery (France) is third, 6''44 back.
Except for Germany with a gap of almost 10 seconds, all the other delegations are over 21 seconds behind the Italian athletes and so they should not be able to steal the title. The duel will be between Italy and Austria with possible surprising results from Germany and France.
Category 1 boys 
Among the boys, the favourite nations are Germany, Austria and France. Despite the many mistakes in the second run the German athletes hold the lead, 1''50 ahead of the Austrian team and 2''81 ahead of France. Italian school ITC La Villa is fourth with a gap of 11'', they should not be able to steal the show.
SPECIAL SLALOM
Category 2 boys 
The favourites in special slalom are again Austria, France and Germany especially for the boys. The three nations stand in an interval of 3 seconds and 19 hundredths with Austria holding the lead at 4'35''00. Italy instead did not do very well due to many falls in both runs and is seventh. During the race, the Austrian and French teams were able to place 4 athletes in the first 10 positions. Eyes on these two countries, and tomorrow we’ll see who is the winner.
Category 2 girls 
The girls’ race will feature a duel between the Austrian team from Saafelden school, who holds the leadership in the first race, and the German athletes with strong Marlene Schmotz, who came in second. Third are the Italian students from Ortisei school at about 16'' back and will probably not be able to battle with the other two teams.
CROSS-COUNTRY 
What about tomorrow’s relay? 
Eva Urevc, from Slovenia, with a smashing victory in category 1 but she cannot count on colleagues as good as her; same thing for Switzerland’s Nadine Fandrich. Neither the Italians seem to be able to step on the podium, but we will certainly see a wonderful French race, very close in the standings: the best are in 4th, 5th and 6th.
Category 1 boys gives us some hope with Ghiglione who must try to spur his colleagues who on Wednesday lagged behind. The top standings are held by France Austria and Switzerland, definitely the favourites.
In category 2 girls, Italy could do a great job together with France and Germany. The Italians are strong and the results are clear: four excellent athletes, with very similar performances, could win over a team with only one good runner.
The Italian team category 2 boys is not at the same level, but Tanel won by a wide gap and Peer can do well too. The rivals to keep an eye on are the French and the Austrian teams.
What else to say ….“may the best win”? 
Race information: 8.30am races start on passo Coe. 
First category 1 girls (4x3.5) and then boys (4x4). Category 2 races will follow, girls first (4x4), then the boys (4x5.5).