Weather forces officials to cancel ski race

Ongoing stormy weather at Cardrona Alpine Resort forced the first cancellation of a Winter Games event yesterday.

A third consecutive day of white-out conditions, severe gales and snow proved too much and officials decided to scratch the skier cross yesterday morning.

Winter Games spokeswoman Victoria Murray-Orr said the decision to cancel the event was made at 8am yesterday.

"We're all really disappointed, but we had tried everything we could to try and make the race happen,"Basically, it's for safety reasons. You can't see a thing out there, with visibility coming and going. The winds are so strong and there is loose [new] snow on the course."

Cancelling the race was about "having" to make a tough call, Murray-Orr said.

While there was some thought to running the skier cross alongside the freeski halfpipe event - scheduled for today - "logistically" it was too difficult.

"It wouldn't really work. [Running the two events side by side] places huge pressure on the infrastructure of the skifield and the resources we have," she said.

The Winter Games were structured so there was always one event allocated to one mountain each day.

"We're not prepared to compromise the high standards we have set for the Winter Games by trying to squash everything together."

Officials and volunteers were focused on making sure the freeski halfpipe event went ahead at Cardrona today "as best as it can", Murray-Orr said.

A Metservice forecast for today is for northwest winds to ease, high cloud, and fine patches, before another low-pressure frontal system arrives tomorrow.