Certák - Harrachov (North Bohemia)
N 50° 46.131 E 015° 25.671
33U E 530170 N 5624207
Certák (also known as Adidas Arena) is a ski jumping stadium with two hills located in the town of Harrachov in the Czech Republic.
Waymark Code: WMM2N0
Location: Liberecký kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 07/09/2014
Views: 33
Certák (also known as Adidas Arena) is a ski jumping stadium with two hills located in the town of Harrachov in the Czech Republic. It was built in 1979 and both hill officially opened in 1980. The venue is most notable for being one of five ski flying hills in the world, though it also has three smaller hills close by. It is owned by the sports club TJ Jiskra Harrachov. Audience capacity is about 50 000.
The hills are located on the north side of the mountain Certová Hora, not far from the border to Poland. The first hill in Harrachov was built in 1922, but at a different location in town. Later in the 1920s the first hill in Certák was built. It was eventually expanded and supplemented with more hills. The ski flying hill was built in 1979 and opened in March 1980.
The large hill in Harrachov was built at the same time as the ski flying hill, and renovated in 1992. This hill has K-spot 125 meters and hill size 142 meters. The official record on the large hill is 145.5 meters, set by Janne Ahonen (Finland) on 12 December 2004 in a World Cup tournament. The unofficial record is 151 meters set by Martin Koch (Austria) on 17 December 2004 in a Continental Cup tournament. The hill is one of the largest large hills in the world.
The standard hill has K-point 90 meters, hill size 100 meters and record 102.5 meters. Two small hills have K-point 70 meters (record 77 meters) and K-point 40 meters (record 43.5 meters). The standard hill has plast mats, allowing summer use.
The ski flying hill in Harrachov early got a rumour of being quite dangerous to jump in. The first years the jumpers had a very high height over the sphere, up to twelve meters. The height resulted in that a gust of wind or error from the participant could end fatally, and many jumpers injured themselves in bad falls on the hill. During the World Championship in 1983 both Steinar Bråten (Norway), Horst Bulau (Canada) and Jens Weißflog (DDR) were severely injured. The venue was in the end closed by the International Ski Federation (FIS), and rebuilt between 1989 and 1992, and has since kept the requirements from FIS. [wiki]