Alpine skiing-Odermatt blasts organisers after training cancelled

YANQING, China :Switzerland's Marco Odermatt hit out at Olympic ski organisers after Saturday's downhill training was cancelled with just three runners having completed the course.

High winds led organisers to pull the plug on the third training run for Sunday's opening medal event with Austria's Matthias Mayer, Italian Christof Innerhofer and favourite Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway the only racers able to get on the track.

"Due to the present situation with high winds and no window in the forecast for decreasing winds, in the best interest of safety, the jury together with the organiser have decided to cancel today's run," the International Ski Federation (FIS) said in a statement.

But Odermatt, the overall World Cup leader and a contender in the downhill, was upset with the way the situation had been handled.

"It's just not fair and for me the big, big issue is how they (the race Jury) communicate to us athletes," he said

"They just make a decision at 11:15, something like that, cancelling the training, even if the last two days we started one hour later.

"They don't even ask what we think. After two or three sentences we spoke with FIS, the Jury, they turned off the radio and didn't answer any more," he added.

"Like this, it's just not working."

Odermatt said there would be a slight advantage for the trio who were able to get in a third run on the unfamiliar course which has never been competed on before.

"On Olympic track where everything is new, you really want to have the same amount of training," said the Swiss.

"If it's in Wengen or Kitbuehel everybody knows the slope but here everything is new, everything is different. So, every run really helps you to find the perfect set up or line.

"Hopefully tomorrow (Sunday),