Skiing-Japan pulls out of Russia ski cross World Cup event

TOKYO : The Ski Association of Japan said on Friday it will pull out its team from a ski cross World Cup event in Russia after Russian forces invased Ukraine, according to news agency Kyodo.

The team also plans to ensure the safety of its athletes and bring them home from Russia, the report said.

The association could not be immediately reached for comment.

Japan joins a host of other nations, including Australia and Canada, in abandoning the event as Russia's military attacks deeper into Ukraine.

Alpine Canada, which manages Canada's ski cross athletes, told CBC sports on Thursday that they will withdraw from the event and are looking to secure flights home as quickly as possible.

World Cup tournaments for ski cross, aerials, and parallel slalom snowboarding were set to take place in Russia this weekend, but most of the ski cross and all of the slalom events were marked as cancelled on the International Ski Federation (FIS) website on Friday.

The official results of two qualifying ski cross events that appeared to have taken place showed only Russian athletes competing, while skiers from countries including France, Germany, and Canada were marked as 'did not start.'

(Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Kim Coghill)