McGarry to concentrate on slalom events

IRELAND’S Kirsty McGarry is almost certain to give the Ladies Super G downhill event tomorrow a miss in order to concentrate on the Ladies Slalom events scheduled for February 22 and 24.

“It is looking very doubtful for Sunday due to the current, very severe course conditions,” said her mother, alpine coach Jane McGarry.

“But we will make a final decision today when we see what the course and weather conditions are like. “Kirsty’s best events are in the slalom disciplines and we feel it may be better to save herself for these competitions.”

McGarry will hope for better luck than her compatriot Rory Morrish, who finished 88th in the men’s 15K Cross Country (classical) skiing event at the Winter Olympics yesterday. The 38-year-old from Cork battled through blizzard conditions to finish in 50:28.1, while winner Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia came home in a time of 38:01.3.

Morrish, a specialist in freestyle cross-country skiing, was up against a top-class field including Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic and German Tobias Angerer, who won silver and bronze respectively.

The race was also noteworthy for featuring the first Ethiopian to compete in a Winter Olympics event. Robel Teklemariam finished 84th, while four skiers cleared in recent days to compete following five-day suspensions for high haemoglobin levels took part in the race: Teklemariam himself, Alen Abramovic of Croatia, Alexander Lasutkin of Belarus and France’s Jean Marc Gaillard.