First women's downhill training cancelled as heavy snow falls on Cortina

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 4 : Heavy snowfall in the last couple of days has forced Milano Cortina Olympics organisers to cancel the first of three training runs for Sunday's women's downhill, the International Ski Federation (FIS) said on Wednesday.

"You have seen the heavy snowfall is ongoing and the weather forecast does not allow us to reasonably plan the training for tomorrow,"  Peter Gerdol, chief race director at FIS, said at the team captains' meeting.

"We will definitely concentrate all our efforts tomorrow and then we will be staying in the plan as well. We will concentrate all our efforts to be ready for Friday's morning training, which is the main goal now."

The two other training runs are scheduled for Friday and Saturday as organisers expect to have time to prepare the Olimpia delle Tofane piste.

"Intense snowfall is forecast in the coming night and snowfall is expected to stop in the middle of the day tomorrow," Thierry Robert-Luciani, a meteorologist for FIS, said.