Bad weather forces rescheduling of women's giant slalom event at PyeongChang

The organisers of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Monday rescheduled the women's giant slalom event due to unfavourable weather conditions.

The women's event was scheduled to start at Yongpyong Alpine Centre in PyeongChang, 180 kilometres east of Seoul, at 10:15 a.m on Monday but the organisers decided to postpone the event due to high winds and bad weather.

It said the event will start at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, with the second run slated for 1:15 p.m. on the same day, reports Yonhap news agency.

In the latest weather forecast, the wind chill was expected to bring temperatures down as low as negative 20 Celsius at Yongpyong Alpine Centre, with wind speeds reaching four meters per second as of 9 a.m.

The women's giant slalom was to feature 81 skiers, headlined by competition favourite Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States. North Korea's Kim Ryon-hyang was also set to make her debut.

This is the second time that the organising committee has rescheduled the alpine skiing competition due to bad weather.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) jury and local organisers previously rescheduled the men's downhill event that was originally set to take place at Jeongseon Alpine Centre in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province, on Sunday.

The men's downhill event was moved to 11 a.m. Thursday, while the men's super giant slalom was pushed back to 11 a.m. Friday.

Sung Baik-you, spokesperson of the PyeongChang organising committee, said the safety of athletes was the biggest factor in the rescheduling.

Baik explained that wind predictions can be made only up to three days but assured that the event should go forward smoothly given sufficient reserve days allotted by the committee and IOC.

According to Sung, tickets for the cancelled event will be accepted at the day of the rescheduled competition.

The committee will also offer refunds to those who are unable to attend the rescheduled competition.

--IANS

sam/hs