Due to heavy snow, the first time trial scheduled today in Sochi, Russia was canceled. Two more races are scheduled for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow's descent on Sunday and the women's SuperG on Sunday.
Yesterday, meanwhile, in the men's field, the night trial show was staged in Schladming, Austria: the Special was won by the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen in 1'42 "37. For him, victory n.21 to 25 years, and record of the general classification more and more solid. According to the French Alexis Pinturault in 1'42 "71 and third the Swiss Daniel Yule in 1'43" 20. Outside, despite the warm support, the Austrian Marco Schwarz, who was in command after the first run.
Italy, especially with its young South Tyroleans, gave an excellent test with Simon Maurberger fifth in 1'43 "44, his best career result at 24 years old, and Alex Vinatzer sixth in 1'43" 49. Just Vinatzer was at the center of an organizational gaffe: after an excellent blue race, the chronometer had momentarily given Vinatzer the lead of 56 cents; but then the data had been
suddenly corrected and Vinatzer had been assigned a delay of 13. It had happened that a woman, dressed only in a very skimpy costume and with a sign with a dedication to the memory of the phenomenon of basketball Kobe Bryant, had incredibly managed to overcome the protections and to go under the finish almost at the same time as the blue, thus triggering the photocells in advance. The emergency timing then corrected.
In the ranking for Italy there is also Tommaso Sala who, with the bib number 39, finished in twentieth position in 1'44 "41. Stefano Gross - tenth after the first heat - ended up outside in the second, while Giuliano Razzoli had had the same fate already in the first.
Now the World Cup is moving to Germany, to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where a descent and a giant are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. The descent will be the 355 / a and the last race in the career of the blue champion Peter Fill.
Virus, canceled races in China
Due to the Coronavirus epidemic, the World Cup races scheduled in China have been canceled by the FIS. The calendar for men included a descent and a super-G on 15 and 16 February in Yanqinq and a pre-Olympic test in view of Beijing 2022. It is still not known where and when the two races will be recovered.