The Alpine skiing giant slalom, which would have featured a clash between Austria's Hermann Maier and Italian Alberto Tomba, was postponed on Wednesday because of heavy snow and poor course conditions.

"The jury has decided to cancel the competition today," Games organisers said in a statement. "The course condition is not good enough. The resulting schedule changes will be announced as soon as they are decided."

One official at the course described course conditions as "very bad". The first run had been due at 0930 local time (0030 GMT) and the second at 1300 (0400).

Heavy snow has been falling since Tuesday at Shiga Kogen, where the Alpine skiing technical events were due to have begun with the giant slalom.

The Alpine skiing speed events were completed on Tuesday at Hakuba after the schedule was repeatedly interrupted by snow, fog and rain.

Wednesday's giant slalom at Shiga Kogen, 100 km from Hakuba in the Japan Alps, was to have been the first Nagano Olympic race for the flamboyant Tomba, who has won five medals, three of them gold, over three Games.

Maier won the men's super-G at Hakuba after crashing spectacularly out of the downhill last week.
 

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	©