ALPINE SKI. BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM, Austria – The wind was howling through the mountains of the Carinthia region of Austria long before the sun came up Friday morning and as it continued throughout the day, officials canceled the second downhill training run of the Bad Kleinkirchheim World Cup event.
 
The downhill race is scheduled for 11:45 Saturday morning and the super G is set for 11:45 Sunday morning. The forecast is calling for light snow both days.
 
Last season’s World Cup overall winner, Maria Hoefl-Riesch, left the finish area immediately after Thursday’s training to go to the clinic, where she was diagnosed with a fever and flu and told she should not compete in this weekend’s races.

FISalpine.com
Friday 6 January 2012

Fenninger fastest in first DH training in Bad Kleinkirchheim

BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM, Austria – It’s been five years since the women’s World Cup tour last stopped in Bad Kleinkirchheim in the Carinthian region of Austria, and not many of the athletes competing in the downhill and super G this weekend were racing then. So for most of the field, Thursday’s first downhill training run was the first sample of the slope and the consensus among them is that the course has everything – besides jumps – to keep them on their toes.
 
Austria’s Anna Fenninger, who wrapped up 2011 with her first World Cup victory in the Lienz giant slalom last week, posted the fastest time in Thursday’s training, 1 minute, 51.27 seconds.
 
“It’s a big challenge,” said Fenninger, adding that unlike a large handful of the 71 starters in Thursday’s training, she made all of the gates. “The first section is really turny – it’s hard to turn the skis – people had problems with the second gate. Maybe it’s too turny. The light was also not good today, but we have our training run so now we can race.”
 
Indeed, the training run, moved to 10:30 in the morning because of snow forecasted for later in the day, took place in flat light and a considerable amount of wind at the top of the course.
 
Wearing bib No. 48, Spain’s Carolina Ruiz Castillo finished just 0.09 seconds behind Fenninger and young Norwegian Lotte Smiseth Sejersted, the second racer down the course, was the third fastest, 0.19 seconds behind the lead time, but exclaimed upon entering the finish area that she missed the second gate.
 
Reigning downhill and super G World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn, who has won all four speed events so far this season (two downhill races and one super G in Lake Louise and the super G in Beaver Creek, which was the most recent but still an entire month ago), was 11th in training, 1.33 seconds off the pace.
 
“I was a little conservative, taking a little bit of wider line than I should have to get back in the feeling of downhill. I haven’t skied downhill since Lake Louise, so it’s been a while,” said Vonn, who came to Bad Kleinkirchheim immediately after her ninth-place slalom finish in Zagreb but isn’t feeling at her optimum due to a stomach virus. “All in all, it was a good run.”
 
Vonn is one of the few racing this weekend who competed here in 2006, when her best result was a ninth place in the downhill won by Anja Paerson.
 
Paerson, who is only competing in speed events this season save a handful of giant slalom events, has not raced since last month in Beaver Creek. She was 25th in training on Thursday.
 
“It was a bit smoother last time we were here, it might have been a little slower, too, but I don’t remember that much,” Paerson said. “Aside from that, it’s difficult in the bottom as always. The first and second gates are impossible at the top. You have to have a really good physical form at the bottom. It’s pretty tough on the legs here.”
 
Another training run is scheduled for Friday and racing kicks off Saturday with downhill at 11:45 local time and the super G is scheduled for Sunday at the same time. The downhill course at Bad Kleinkirchheim starts at an elevation (at a point called “Klammerstich” after local hero Franz Klammer) of 1840 meters and finishes at 1062 with a vertical drop of 778 meters while the super G begins at 1519 with a 457-meter drop.
 
Go here for full results of Thursday’s training run.
 
Go here for a video of Fenninger and Vonn describing the Bad Kleinkirchheim course.
 
By Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Thursday 5 January 2012

Adelboden gets 1 meter of snow fall overnight but races still a go

ADELBODEN, Switzerland – According to Benno Heer, Adelboden Press Chief, 1 meter of snow fell on the slopes here overnight where the AUDI FIS Ski World Cup Men's Alpine Giant Slalom is scheduled to start tomorrow morning.

The shoveling crew has been out since early morning hastily removing the snow from the course. “Sixty people are working on it, and will be working all day until tomorrow morning but it will be no problem,” Heer said.

Heer reported that there was contemplation yesterday evening about bringing in extra course workers from Wengen to help remove the snow, but in the end, the Adelboden crew was able to handle it.

“If we can do it without, we can do it without,” Heer said with a grin.

Snow is still coming down in Adelboden and forecast to continue throughout the afternoon. The forecast for tomorrow's race start is -3 celsius, cloudy, and no precipitation though slight snowfall likely starting in the afternoon―a barometer to the crew that, with heavy shoveling efforts today, the GS race is planned to go off without a hitch. For Sunday's slalom race, slight snowfall is forecast.

by Vanessa Pierce
FISalpine.com
Friday 6 January 2012

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