Hinterstoder (Austria) (AFP)
The alpine combined scheduled for Friday in Hinterstoder (Austria), counting for the Men's Alpine Ski World Cup, has been canceled due to weather conditions (wind, rain and snow), announced the International Ski Federation (FIS).
"Due to the rain and snowfall overnight, the current weather situation and the forecast for the day, the jury with the organizing committee decided to cancel the alpine combined scheduled for today," said the FIS.
Strong gusts of wind swept through the Austrian station at night and snow fell and continues to fall in quantity (30 cm of fresh snow was expected according to the weather forecast).
The Hinterstoder stage was to host three races, essential in the race for the award of the big crystal globe of world N.1: a combined Friday, a super-G on Saturday and a giant slalom on Sunday.
The weather forecast is more optimistic for Saturday, before the snow returns, in smaller quantities on Sunday.
The Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde occupies the head of the World Cup with 74 points ahead of his compatriot Henrik Kristoffersen, and 124 points ahead of the Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, world champion in alpine combined title and who counted on this race in Austria to make up for part of its delay on its two competitors.
Kristoffersen and Pinturault, more specialists in technical disciplines, have already both suffered from the cancellation of the Naeba slalom last week in Japan, which has still not been rescheduled, while Kilde does not dispute this discipline.
If the two races are not reprogrammed - they must take place before the week of the finals scheduled for March 17-22 in Cortina d'Ampezzo in northern Italy - there will only be ten races left on the program: three super- G, three giant slaloms, two downhill and two slaloms.
Such an end of the season would be more favorable for Kilde, now the favorite to succeed the Austrian Marcel Hirscher, eight-time holder of the Alpine Skiing World Cup and retired from the slopes since September 2019.
© 2020 AFP