Garmisch: Fog dooms Saturday races

A stubborn band of fog refused to go way and caused officials to cancel both the women’s super G and the men’s downhill scheduled for  Garmisch-Partenkirchen today.

Organizers and FIS officials were conferring as to rescheduling. The layer of fog was particularly frustrating as the top third of both the women’s SG course and the men’s downhill course were in the sunshine and the bottom 25percent was clear as well. Unfortunately the fog was so thick that it was impossible for officials to allow either event to go on.A stubborn band of fog refused to go way and caused officials to cancel both the women’s super G and men’s downhill scheduled for  Garmisch-Partenkirchen today.

Organizers and FIS officials were conferring as to rescheduling. The layer of fog was particularly frustrating as the top third of both the women’s SG course and the men’s downhill course were in the sunshine and the bottom 25percent was clear as well. Unfortunately the fog was so thick that it was impossible for officials to allow either event to go on.

The women’s super G, the fourth of the season, was the first to succumb with officials canceling the race after several delays. The race was later rescheduled for Sunday at Garmisch.

The men’s downhill, the seventh of the season was continually pushed back from an original scheduled start of 11am local time, eventually  bumping to a 2:45pm start. The fog refused to lift, and officials cancelled that race, too, about 2:15.
 
The men are still set for a slalom at Garmisch Sunday. The women are set for super G, also at Garmisch and also Sunday. These will be the final races of the pre-World Championship schedule and skiers will now travel to Val d’Isere, France for the Ski World Championships running Feb. 3-15. Women’s super G is first on tap Feb. 3.