13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - 2nd March 2011

2nd March 2011 

Another early start with people learning the course this morning, as competitors prepare for the first ski race. The slope and lifts are very busy. 

Let us hope all the "technical" problems are behind us.  The helicopter landed just as the ski race started.  At the end of the first ski run, for the women Austria Red, Magdelena Schwertl was the fastest, Slovenia ALC, Irena Avbelj in second place and Switzerland 1, Christina Franz in third.  For the men, Marco Valente, Italy was the fastest, Anton Gruber, Austria White 2nd and Reinhold Haibel, Germany, third.  The best run though was by Erik Vliegenshart, South Africa.  Not only is this his first World Championships, today was his first competitive Giant Slalom, having learnt to ski over the 5 days prior to the start of competition.  And his time was not the slowest!

Because the snow was good and it stayed cold (-10 first thing) the second ski race was run.

At 12.30 the accuracy competition continued with the completion of round 1 and by 2.30 Round 2 was well underway.  The wind conditions were a little tricky at first, but settled down after the first couple of lifts. 

By the end of the day three rounds of accuracy were completed.  However, I was a little early in reporting settled conditions, as the sun went down the evening conditions became very difficult with wind sheer and turbulance and the last few teams to jump had "challenging" wind conditions.

Another early start in the morning with an 8.30 wind-drifter load.