Saalbach-Hinterglemm (dpa) – Thick fog and persistent snowfall have led to the men’s downhill run in Saalbach-Hinterglemm being canceled. After nine starters the race was stopped and not restarted after an hour and a half break.
For the ski aces around the German vice world champion Andreas Sander, the first Speed World Cup after the World Cup was canceled. On Saturday (11.00 a.m. / ZDF and Eurosport) the next descent is due in the Salzburger Land – then according to the weather report with significantly better conditions.
“I think it was definitely not a wrong decision. It would be just unfair, ”said Dominik Paris, who was in charge at the time of the cancellation, on ORF. World champion Vincent Kriechmayr, who came in second, also spoke of a “right” decision by the jury. After just a few drivers it became clear that all the fresh snow was making the slope significantly slower. Co-favorite Beat Feuz started the race four places after Paris and was one second slower, Johan Clarey with starting number nine was more than 1.7 seconds behind.
The German athletes had not started yet. Sander and teammate Romed Baumann passed the waiting time in the Starthaus, among other things, during small talk with the Norwegian veteran Kjetil Jansrud. In between, Sander loudly instructed the piste workers to carefully remove the fresh snow from the racing line – but in the end the instructions from the Ennepetaler were unnecessary.
In the fight for the Discipline World Cup, the cancellation meant that the chances of the leader Feuz to win the small crystal ball again have increased significantly. Before the last two downhill runs of the winter, he has 48 points ahead of Matthias Mayer from Austria and 118 points over Paris. So the decision could be made on Saturday.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210305-99-702247 / 4
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