Heavy snowfall holds up Gu gold medal charge at Olympics

Last updated on: 13 February,2022 11:04 am

Californian-born Chinese sensation Eileen Gus bid for a second gold medal at the Beijing Games

ZHANGJIAKOU (AFP) - Californian-born Chinese sensation Eileen Gus bid for a second gold medal at the Beijing Games was held up Sunday when womens freeski slopestyle qualification was postponed because of heavy snow.

Elsewhere at the Games, the second of three training runs for the womens downhill was cancelled.

Freestyle skier Gu, who won the womens Big Air title in her Olympic debut last week, is competing in the freeski slopestyle and halfpipe events in Zhangjiakou, about 180 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of Beijing.

There was no official word on when slopestyle qualification would be rescheduled to.

It was originally set to start at 10:00am (0200 GMT) on Sunday, but was pushed back two hours before being postponed for the day as snow fell down.

The final is currently set to start at 9:30am on Monday.

The training run for womens downhill skiing at the National Alpine Skiing centre in Yanqing, north of Beijing, had been scheduled for 11:00 am Sunday.

"Due to the snowfall the jury together with the organiser have decided to cancel todays womens downhill training," it was announced.

It had been due to be held between the two legs of a medal event, the mens giant slalom.

The first run of the giant slalom did go ahead.

Female racers have a third training run scheduled for Monday, with the downhill proper due on Tuesday.