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Weather delays Beaver Creek super G

Ian Cropp
Vail correspondent
Aspen, CO Colorado
Volunteers Dave Demko, left, and Jim Feeny move netting to create a snow dump after the postponement of the Birds of Prey super G race Saturday morning. Races will continue Sunday with the giant slalom. (Theo Stroomer/Vail Daily)
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BEAVER CREEK, Colo. ” Saturday’s World Cup super G race on the Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek was postponed until Monday as heavy snow, winds and fog made for unsafe racing conditions.

Early in the morning, organizers had considered running the race from a lowered super G start but later decided to push the race back to Monday at 10 a.m.

“Today was not an easy day for all the decisions,” said Gunther Hujara, the men’s chief of race for the International Ski Federation. “For those of us who can look behind the curtain, they could realize it’s not only a decision if we like to run the race or if the racers are ready ” there is a whole machinery behind it.”



The Vail Valley Foundation, which organizes the race, gave the OK for the Monday date early on.

“I was very happy and glad that the first signal came from (the Vail Valley Foundation),” Hujara said. “Then we had to solve other issues like TV ” there is a European broadcasting union and so on. This was not easy.”




The FIS scheduling for this season allowed the super-G to be moved to Monday, as there are no speed races in Europe next week, unlike in years past. If there hadn’t been the possibility to reschedule, Hujara said they would have tried to run the super G from the giant slalom start.

“We would have taken this option to run the race before we (lost) it,” Hujara said. “During the day, it was proof that we did not have the chance to run the race because the weather didn’t give us any chance, so the decision was the right one, and I thank everyone for their support.”

Hujara then went on to praise the flexibility of the schedule and urged coaches to speak with their FIS representatives about next season’s schedule.

“A maneuver we (did) today ” postponing the race to Monday ” is only possible if a calendar is built like it’s built for this season, and we’ll try to build it in the future.”

Sunday’s slalom is slated to start at 9:45 a.m., while the second run will go at 12:45 p.m. With snow in the forecast for Saturday night, organizers had crews working on the course starting at 9 p.m.

“They are ready; they know what to do. They’ve done it several times before,” said Chief of Course Greg Johnson. “We will clean up both the giant slalom and super G hill, too.”