Finn tops risky qualifying
ByReuters
Published 15/02/2007 at 15:04 GMT
Finland's Tuukka Kaukoniemi clocked the fastest time in Thursday's qualifying for the men's slalom at the world championships, which saw many racers from countries with no skiing tradition struggle down an icy course.
ALPINE SKIING 2006-2007 Are Men's Giant Slalom Slideshow Blardone
Image credit: Eurosport
Kaukoniemi clocked a combined time of one minute 57.14 seconds down the Olympia piste to top the list of 25 qualifiers for Saturday's race.
Qualifying has been introduced here for the men's giant slalom and slalom, for the first time at a major event, to limit entrants.
The top 50 in the world automatically qualify for the first legs of the two technical events, and are joined by the top 25 from qualifying.
Out of the 97 racers who entered Thursday's qualifying, among them skiers from Brazil, Greece and Lebanon, 35 skied out and 12 were disqualified.
Several countries complained about the rules, saying they made it almost impossible for competitors from the smaller nations to qualify for the races.
Senegal have withdrawn their racer, Leyty Seck, from the two technical events in protest.
Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong has also pulled out of the championships, returning home after failing to qualify for Wednesday's giant slalom.
Skiing in a fake leopard-skin suit in temperatures below minus 10 Celsius, he finished over a minute off the pace.
There is no qualifying for the women's technical events.
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