As if the World Cup freestyle tour hadn’t suffered enough with the cancellation of its entire December schedule, International Ski Federation officials announced one day after Herculean efforts salvaged the World Cup stop at Mont Gabriel, Quebec, that the sports’ World Championships had been pushed back to March.

AS IF THE WORLD CUP FREESTYLE tour hadn’t suffered enough with the cancellation of its entire December schedule, International Ski Federation officials announced one day after Herculean efforts salvaged the World Cup stop at Mont Gabriel, Quebec, that the sports’ World Championships had been pushed back to March.
    “The championships had been scheduled January 22-28 and now they are March 5 through 11,” said FIS Freestyle Director Joe Fitzgerald.
    Unseasonably warm temperatures in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, the site of the title meet, has prevented organizers from making sufficient snowpack, particularly on the freestyle sites, generally scheduled as close to town center as possible to make them more spectator friendly.
    Fitzgerald said the rescheduling might prove beneficial, shifting the World Championships to the end of the regular season instead of in the middle. “We had the championships at the end of the season in 2003, too,” he said, “and I thought that went pretty well.”
    The new dates will mean the freestyle worlds will follow close on the heels of the World Nordic Ski Championships set for Sapporo, Japan, from Feb. 22 to March 2.