Weather forces cancellation of Wengen training run, and change in World Cup schedule

Weather forces cancellation of Wengen training run, and change in World Cup schedule{mosimage}The training run for the men’s World Cup downhill at Wengen was cancelled Thursday due to poor weather, and organizers are worried that the Lauberhorn downhill itself may be threatened.

Winds of up to 192 kilometers per hour whipped off the top of the Jungfrau, the monolith that looms over the small, car-free village of Wengen. The 74th running of the Lauberhorn, one of the World Cup’s classic events, is scheduled for this weekend, with the downhill on Saturday and slalom on Sunday.

Wengen had also expected to host an extra downhill on Friday — a race that was cancelled in Bormio, Italy on December 28, then picked up, and cancelled again, at Chamonix, France, last week. Wengen inherited the extra race from Chamonix, and was intending to host it on Friday. But with Thursday´s training run cancellation, organizers decided to pass off the race yet again, to Kitzbuehel, Austria, which will hold the race on Thursday, January 22.

Friday´s training run is essential because the FIS rules require a training run before a downhill race. At the team captain´s meeting on Thursday night, FIS race director Gunther Hujara warned coaches to be positive their athletes got a thorough inspection because he hadn´t ruled out running both a training run and race run on Saturday if Friday´s training run got cancelled. Snow is expected to fall all night and all weekend.

As snow fell on the village, the U.S. Ski Team spent Thursday morning watching movies. In the afternoon, coaches and athletes got together for a game of pick-up hockey, while the Norwegian team organized a curling match on an adjacent ice sheet.

Willi Wiltz, the serviceman for Daron Rahlves, has his bench set up in the team’s annual Wengen home — the basement of the Mannlicher tram building. He’s already preparing Rahlves’ skis for the races in Kitzbuehel, Austria, next week.