Nef finishes third in US

Sonja Nef won six of eight World Cup giant slaloms last season Keystone

Switzerland's World Cup giant slalom champion, Sonja Nef, only managed third on Wednesday at the Copper Mountain race in Colorado.

Norway’s Andrine Flemmen finished first, clinching her second World Cup victory ahead of Canadian Alison Forsyth. Flemmen, who was absent from the circuit last season, was equal first with Nef after the initial leg, and was second best on the other run.

Nef finished 69 hundredths of a second behind Flemmen. “I don’t understand how I lost so much time,” she said.

“I’m very disappointed to have lost here,” said Nef. “Perhaps I was too agressive on this kind of snow, but I don’t want this to happen again.”

The next-best Swiss in the race were Franzi Aufdenblatten, who finished 24th, and Liliane Kummer, 29th.

“I thought I skied much faster on the final part of the course,” said Kummer. “It’s hard to say where I lost time on such a flat course.”

Warm weather

The race was to be held initially in Aspen, but because of warm conditions, it was moved to Copper Mountain, where a slalom will also be held Thursday.

Three men’s World Cup races have been called off in Colorado because of a dearth of snow.

The International Ski Federation (FIS), which announced the decision on Wednesday, said the races concerned were Saturday’s giant slalom in Aspen and the December 1-2 super-G in Beaver Creek.

Colorado has been hit by the warmest month of November since 1978.

“We are greatly saddened at the loss of this year’s World Cup,” said Ceil Folz, president of the Vail Valley Foundation and head of the event’s organising committee.

Tom Kelly, vice president of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, said it is the first time that a World Cup race in the US has been cancelled because of warm weather. The races will be rescheduled in Europe later this winter.

However, the men’s slalom races set for Sunday and Monday in Aspen are expected to be run as scheduled, officials said.

After Thursday’s slalom, the women’s tour moves on to the Canadian resort of Lake Louise for two downhills and a super-G between November 29 and December 1.

swissinfo with agencies