Schladming night slalom set to begin tonight

Schladming night slalom set to begin tonight{mosimage}The Schladming night slalom, one of the most well-attended and spectacular races on the alpine World Cup, is set to begin tonight. Skiracing.com will provide between-run updates.

The annual Austrian race was controversial last year after Benjamin Raich was crowned the winner following a disastrous second run by Bode Miller, who won the first run. Miller later complained that his skis couldn’t grip because of wet snow that fell on the course while he waited in the start. Course slippers had failed to slip the upper part of the course during the evacuation of Ivica Kostelic, who tore a knee ligament on his run.

Tonight’s first run starts at 6:00 p.m. CET. That’s noon on the east coast of the United States, and 10:00 a.m. in the Rocky Mountains. The second run begins at 8:45 p.m. local time, which is 2:45 on the east coast.

Live timing at the FIS website is not available, in part because of the breakdown of co-operation between the FIS and the Austrian ski federation on the issue of timing and data processing contracts.

The website of the race organizing committee is www.ski-weltcup-schladming.at. There one can find photos and course profiles of this dramatic race.