Top names back Super-G

"I am going to make a proposition for the next FIS meeting in Portoroz that from the 2008-09 season the super-G will only be part of the super-combined, not an individual event," men's World Cup race director Gunther Hujara said on the eve of the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide.

"I informed the teams in Kvitfjell last week that the purpose is to reduce the number of events each year because athletes are too tired at the end of the season."

Super-G has been a part of the World Cup since the mid-1980s when it was introduced by FIS to offer another speed discipline.

It is basically a downhill with more turns and the fact that, unlike downhill, there are no training runs, means it often produces exciting, unpredictable races.

Swiss Didier Cuche, who last week clinched the World Cup downhill title and is going for the overall trophy, believes the super-G should be retained.

"I'd better hurry up and win one before they cancel it," said the 32-year-old who has twice topped the podium in super-G.

"It's the most intriguing speciality for me. You just inspect the course and then race, it's spectacular."

The super-combined, which features a shortened downhill and a one-leg slalom race, was launched last season to offer scope for both speed and technical specialists.

"I came 15th in a super-combined without any slalom training for five years," said Cuche. "Anybody can do well in a super-combined."

Austrian Hermann Maier, a former world and Olympic champion in super-G, and speed queen Renate Goetschl also hit out at any plans to lose the event.

"This is the most challenging and exciting event," Maier said. "I've always enjoyed racing super-G, it's about guts and courage. It's pure ski racing because it's a tough course and you have to be instinctive."

Goetschl, who has 17 career World Cup wins in super-G and who has already captured this season's crown, added: "If they get rid of super-G I may as well quit racing."

The 31-year-old Austrian, still in with a chance of winning the overall title here, races almost exclusively these days in the speed races.

Any decision by FIS to scrap the super-G would run into problems because the event is already part of the programme for the 2009 and 2011 world championships and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.