Final Santa Caterina training run canceled ahead of Sunday’s race

SANTA CATERINA VALFURVA, Italy – The weather was the only winner at the second and final day of downhill training on the Deborah Compagnoni slope in Santa Caterina. While all seemed set for the run early Saturday morning, after the jury initially confirmed the program the weather conditions started to take a turn for the worse.

Close to the planned starting time of 11:30 a.m. it quickly became clear that running the training from the original start position would be impossible. A call was made to postpone the training until noon and start from the reserve start house, or the “ladies’ start”. Unfortunately, that plan also proved ineffective when a check by the jury revealed that some sections on the course were not skiable at that point.

Once again the training run was delayed to a possible 12:30 p.m. start time but the weather failed to improve and the training run was ultimately canceled.

Despite today’s cancellation, tomorrow’s downhill race is scheduled to be held from the top since full-length training took place on Thursday. In that sole training, Germany’s Josef Ferstl skied the fastest run from bib 31, and a number of speed veterans found themselves seconds back on the new track.

“The track is very good, very technical and difficult from top to bottom. In fact, even at the bottom – just like in Bormio – you can’t catch your breath because it’s important to keep speed even in the wood,” said Kjetil Jansrud who has finished every speed race so far this season either in first or second. “It’s really cool.”

“There are so many curves on the Compagnoni track that from mid-race I almost forgot them all!” exclaimed Steven Nyman. “So I had to rely on instinct which is thankfully strong. Otherwise it would have been very hard.”

Tomorrow’s race set for 11:30 a.m. local time should prove to be an interesting one for so many in the field who have little experience on the course.

Release courtesy of FIS and Bormio Organizing Committee