2023-11-11 07:05:03
As of: November 11, 2023 8:05 a.m
The first of two Alpine World Cup downhill runs on the Matterhorn has been canceled due to poor weather conditions.
The organizers of the race planned for Saturday decided this due to the amount of fresh snow and strong winds, as the world association FIS announced in the morning. A safe event is not possible like this.
It was feared that the race, which was supposed to start on the Swiss side of the Zermatt-Cervinia ski area and end in Italy, might not take place due to the weather forecast. The athletes were already unable to take part in two training sessions on Thursday and Friday. There is actually a second descent on Sunday – although meteorologists do not expect the weather to improve.
If a race does start on Sunday, the athletes will only have completed one training session on the new slope. On Wednesday the conditions were still ideal.
Cautious attempts
Many athletes, such as Thomas Dreßen from the German team, drove rather cautiously; They actually wanted to slowly approach the course over the three planned training sessions. German head coach Christian Schweiger does not believe that this will have a major impact. “They are all experienced racing drivers. When it comes down to it, they will step on the gas,” he announced.
For the women, the first slalom of the winter is taking place in Levi, Finland (10 a.m./1 p.m./BR). Lena Dürr, who came third in the World Cup, is aiming for the podium once more following her strong previous season. The slope in the far north suits her: in Levi she came third twice in 2021 and fourth twice in 2022.
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