– I’m actually a little surprised, Britain’s Andrew Young told NRK on Tuesday afternoon.

At the start of the final chase during the World Cup final in Quebec, Young ended up in fourth place in the competition entered for best stage time, which is considered a points-awarding competition at the World Cup.

The only problem was that Young started from behind and crossed the finish line ahead of him, who finished in third place for the best stage time, American Simeon Hamilton. As a result, it was impossible for Hamilton to go faster than Young, but due to the special calculation method used by the FIS, the list remained as it was.

England was not involved in that.

When NRK met Young and coach Jostein Vinjerui at the airport on their way home, they announced they were considering filing a complaint. As said, that’s it.

Money and points are redistributed

And on Tuesday news emerged that they had succeeded in the International Ski Federation (FIS) appeals committee. In the decision, which NRK had access to, it was determined that the list of best stage time results at the start of the hunt in Quebec, for both women and men, should be recalculated.

It was also stipulated that prize money should be redistributed according to the updated list. World Cup points must also be redistributed according to the correct list, according to the decision.

This means that the overall World Cup standings will also experience adjustments. In theory, this could have resulted in another overall winner, but that did not happen as Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo ultimately won by a relatively clear margin.

“Mr Young proved to be faster than Mr Hamilton, so the final results must show that and the official results must be corrected,” said the decision, signed by Karl-Heinz Lickert, head of the rules and control committee for backcountry ski-cross at the FIS.

– I’ve basically given up on this, Young admits.

– Means a lot

– For us, it means a lot. Both the results and the principles. Whoever is fastest over a certain distance should get the best time, England national team coach Jostein Vinjerui told NRK on Tuesday afternoon.

The decision meant the prize money of around 18,000 kroner, which should have gone to Hamilton, ended up in Young’s hands. Moreover, the difference between third and fourth place is quite large for the English team.

– Small teams like ours depend on the support of the British sporting powerhouse, and when funds are allocated, a podium finish is much more valuable than fourth place, explains Vinjerui

– We didn’t think FIS would change the results, but we are very happy they took the right decision, he told NRK.

The calculations are disputed, the rules are unclear

Calculation of the best stage times in cross-country skiing has been a big topic this season, after NRK explained how Ingvild Flugstad Østberg ended up behind Therese Johaug in the results list in Lillehammer before Christmas, even though she proved to be 0.1 seconds faster than her. Johaug.

Both race director Pierre Mignerey and FIS cross country committee chairman Vegard Ulvang have announced that the counting method must be changed before next season.

Karl-Heinz Lickert made no secret of the fact that the regulations were very unclear, providing a challenge to the appeals committee when complaints came from the UK.

– We actually have three different rules to deal with. The IRC, International Competition Regulations, says nothing about this. “So we have to follow the World Cup rules and the FIS points counting rules,” Lickert told NRK.

Not retroactive

According to Tuesday’s ruling, the FIS points rules state the following: “Only the actual race time is acceptable for calculating FIS points.”

Since Young and Hamilton theoretically started exactly the same way in a so-called wave start (Young in fact started behind Hamilton, as he was further back on the line), and Young crossed the finish line first, it was clear that Young had fallen behind. faster than Hamilton.

The decision means FIS has been using inaccurate calculation methods for years. Karl-Heinz Lickert is still not convinced there will be more rewritten results lists.

– The appeal period in such cases is 30 days. “As far as I know, this decision cannot be applied retroactively to races where no one has appealed,” he told NRK.

So, for example, the list of results from Lillehammer before Christmas will remain.

– You start to wonder

Andrew Young argues that what is surprising is that the FIS appears to have applied its rules incorrectly for several years.

– We start to wonder what other rules they might be practicing incorrectly, he told NRK.

– This shows that we have to make some very clear rules, says Vegard Ulvang.

Race director Pierre Mignerey argued that there was no basis to say the rule had been used incorrectly.

– If you study the various rules, you will see that they conflict with each other. We’ve been doing the same training for as long as we’ve had competitions like this, that is, before I was at FIS. In this case, I don’t see what we could have done differently. But now I’m glad we have a decision from higher authorities, and there is agreement that we should have clearer rules on this in the future, Mignerey told NRK.