Bad weather wrecks Garmisch, Maribor ski races

Warm weather left organisers with no choice but to cancel both the men's World Cup giant slalom in Garmisch and the women's slalom in Maribor on Sunday. Organisers of the men's race in Garmisch, Bavaria, called off their race half an hour before the scheduled start time of 10:30am (0930 GMT) after sleet and rain had softened up the Kandahar 2 piste. Likewise in Slovenia, warm temperatures meant the slalom in Maribor had to be abandoned after 25 skiers had gone down the Pohorje2 piste, but the race jury could no longer guarantee the athletes' safety. After her slalom run, German skier Lena Duerr said organisers had taken the right decision. "It was precarious," Duerr told ARD after the Maribor piste had started breaking up with holes appearing in places. "Of course it was raceable, but whether it was fair is hard to say. "It was a pure fight the whole way and no fun." In Garmisch, Wolfgang Maier, Alpine director of the German Ski Union (DSV), said persistent rain meant a normal race had no longer been possible. "We are an open-air sport. It would always have been a race to the limits (of safety) and you have to accept it as it is," said Maier. In Saturday's downhill race, Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde pulled off a shock with the first World Cup win of his career on Garmisch's Kandahar. In Maribor, Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg pipped Ana Drev to World Cup giant slalom victory on Saturday as Lindsey Vonn crashed out but held onto the overall lead.