Men’s Jr Worlds alpine combined canceled

On Monday, the decision to have the men’s field run a slalom during the women’s alpine combined day was a precautionary act for the possible weather change moving into Narvik on Tuesday. Sadly, the weather became too warm and wet for the snow conditions, making the track dangerously soft for the men’s alpine combined, forcing cancellation of the race.

The weather has been ever-changing in Narvik for the FIS Alpine World Junior Championships. The week started out with the downhill race being lowered because of the wind, fog, and snow. Then the sun came out for the men and women’s super G, but yesterday for the women’s alpine combined, the snow was a little strange because of the warm temperatures and wet weather. Those warm temperatures carried into today and the track did not freeze up enough for the safety of the athletes.

Thanks to an extensive volunteer effort and hard work by the coaches, the hill is reportedly going to be well-prepped for the tech races to come.

Bridger Gile, skiing for the U.S. Ski Team said, “Yeah, it is always a bummer when you get ready to go do an event and then it gets canceled on you. But, I’m super excited for the tech events. There are people watering the hill right now, so the surface should be good. There are a lot of little rolls and fall seats on the trail, so I’m excited to ski that as well.”

After the men skied the slalom portion of the alpine combined, Jamie Casselman of Canada was in first place with a time of 38.87. Atle Lie Mcgrath, skiing for Norway, was in silver medal position, just 0.14 behind Casselman, and in bronze was Samuel Kolega of Croatia, 0.42 behind the leader. The first U.S. male was Isaiah Nelson in sixth place and the U.S. had all five men in the top 20.

“Going into the tech events, I’m mentally focused on not getting my expectations too high and just having fun,” said Gile. “I think this is the coolest event of the year and so I’m just trying to enjoy it and soak it all in and ski fast.”

The women resume racing Wednesday with GS.

Men’s SL portion of the Alpine Combined Video Stream

Coming up…

Women’s giant slalom March 11

Men’s giant slalom March 12

Men and Women’s slalom March 13

Men and Women’s parallel March 14