[wrenegade]

Course not ready, event cancelled

Only one day between snowboardcross and parallel giant slalom

BY TERRY BELL, CANWEST NEWS SERVICEFEBRUARY 16, 2009


The alarm bells are ringing loud and clear today up on Cypress Mountain.

There are increased concerns about weather and potential course-related problems during the 2010 Olympics after a World Cup snowboarding parallel giant slalom (PGS) race had to be cancelled yesterday because the hill could not be prepared in time.

"I don't think they'll be ready for next year," Mont Tremblant, Que.'s Jasey-Jay Anderson, who won the world championship PGS two weeks ago in Korea, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"They were so far off this year that I can't imagine how they could fix it for next year. I'm hoping, but it's impossible for me to get rid of the doubts. That area is known for its sporadic conditions."

Unlike last year, when fog and rain disrupted a World Cup freestyle skiing event at Cypress, weather wasn't directly responsible this time.

New snow or colder weather might have helped, but this weekend it was course preparation that led to Saturday night's decision to call off the race.

The alpine course was home to a World Cup freestyle skiing ski cross race last weekend. It then hosted a World Cup snowboardcross (SBX) event on Friday and there wasn't enough time to prepare the course for the PGS.

"When they tore down the SBX slope to create our course, it just fell apart," said Canadian coach Mark Fawcett of Whistler.

He said the snow was like sand. Others compared it to sugar.

"It was loose," Fawcett said. "It was dangerous for the athletes."

Fawcett wasn't pointing fingers at VANOC or the International Ski Federation, which scheduled the races.

"There's not one person to blame," said Fawcett, who was explicit that this SNAFU had absolutely nothing to do with Cypress Mountain management.

"Conditions existed to create the perfect scenario to make the worst possible surface. We just hit worst-case scenario and now we have to be prepared for it next year."

Tim Gayda, VANOC vice-president of sport, insisted that this won't be a problem in 2010. The mountain will be closed to skiers for three weeks during the Games, allowing more time to make preparations.

"Cancelling the PGS is due to a few factors, including that we had limited time in advance of the event to prepare the terrain and a shorter conversion time than at [2010] Games," Gayda said in a statement.

"We'll be on the mountain much sooner [in 2010] with significantly more time to prepare and we will have twice as much time between these two events to convert the course," he said.

"It's a huge disappointment," said national team boarder Alexa Loo of Richmond.

"We were all just reeling when we heard the news last night. The entire mood of the whole team was downcast. Everyone was in shock. It's just so unprecedented to cancel a race."

Loo questioned the logic of holding these events on the same hill with only a day in between.

"You can't have a snowboardcross on the same hill as the alpine just a day or two before and then try to mow it down in time," she said.

"By having the snowboardcross only two days before the race event, it's really not enough time to get the snow set and hard for the race."

[email protected]

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Terry Bell, The Province
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Course+ready+event+cancelled/1294220/story.html