(All times local. GMT -8)
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ByOllie Williamsin Vancouver
1055: We can be relatively sure that none of the remaining 30 or so athletes will threatenElisabeth Goerglof Austria, our current leader. Use ourlive timings pagefor full details of the first run so far. The second run is scheduled to begin at 1315Van/2115UK.
1052:Matea Ferkof Croatia exits the course in the least dramatic fashion I have ever seen. She runs a little wide, then comes slowly to a halt and stands there, motionless, contemplating her error. No flurry of snow, no thundering crash, just the serenity of failure.
1046: A challenge for you. Go to thestart list for the giant slalomon our results pages and tell me how many of those little flags you can correctly identify. I’m fine until around somewhere in the 60s, after which it gets slowly dicier.
Ed in Derbyshire texts: “It appears Chemmy Alcott has massively under-achieved in Whistler so far. Is that fair”
It depends which way you look at it, Ed. If you hold Alcott to her own predictions prior to these Games - for example, the proclamation "I have the self-belief to win gold"while talking to my colleague Anna Thompson- then yes, she has. But I don’t know if many people necessarily shared that belief. Personally, I would have been surprised to see her threaten the podium in Whistler, simply because her results in the run-up to the Games didn’t suggest it was likely to happen.
1039:Julia Mancusonow has a second bite of the cherry, having had her previous run wiped out by Lindsey Vonn’s untimely exit from the course. Mancuso was up on our leader Elisabeth Goergl at the first split, but leaks a huge amount of time in the middle segment. Having to produce her run so far down the field won’t have helped her at all, and her time of 1:16.42 will only earn her 18th place so far.
1034: News of Lindsey Vonn, who crashed out in the final section of the course a few minutes ago. According to Doug Haney, from the US ski team, Vonn “banged her finger a little bit” but is otherwise fine.
1032:Chemmy Alcottis already 1.42 seconds behind Goergl at the split, then almost lets it go but rescues herself to finish a good couple of seconds off the pace. The giant slalom is, on paper, her best event, but it’ll be difficult to make much from that in the second run. She’s currently 20th of 22 athletes to have finished the course.
1030: The state of play with 20 athletes having finished the course:
1.Elisabeth Goergl(Aut) 1:15.12
2.Taina Barioz(Fra) +0.02
3.Kathrin Zettel(Aut) +0.16
Chemmy Alcott goes next for Great Britain.
Anon texts: “How can they run the giant slalom in that fog It seems unsafe.”
Word from Whistler is that it is safe for two reasons. First, the fog is ever-changing and is not that bad at all for most of the competitors. (You can tell that much from the TV pictures.) Second, the TV cameras are zooming in from a fairly large distance to follow the skiers down the slope, which exaggerates the density of the fog. Visibility for the athletes themselves is apparently better than it is for us, watching.
1026:Fabienne Suterof Switzerland will go next, as Mancuso makes her way back to the top. There are 86 athletes in this giant slalom so safe to say Mancuso has time on her hands to get her focus back.
1024: Vonn’s team-mateJulia Mancusomay not be helped by her American colleague’s crash, as she got the yellow flag on her run and is being lifted back up to the start. The defending Olympic champion will now go whenever she feels ready. A yellow flag is a very rare occurrence in an event other than downhill. Vonn is up on her feet gingerly, still in her skis.
1021:Elisabeth Goerglromps home with her final split to lead by two hundredths of a second. Now here’sLindsey Vonnand she’s off the course! Into the safety netting, skis still on her feet. She went into the netting back-first at quite some speed. We’ll have a break in proceedings here as safety workers try to reach her - difficult to tell how badly hurt she is.
1018: This fog is not messing around. If you were a grizzly bear you could quite easily wander out, stand by the second or third gate (just round the corner from the start, nicely out of sight), and have a skier away. Nobody would know.
(I suppose they might eventually notice from the somewhat disappointing split times.)
breadhattweets: “Whilst the bobsleigh women have work to do and Chemmy Alcott is a long shot, I’m banking on your 100%-of-British-medals live text commentary record.”
And very proud I am of that record, too. However, it’s going to have to be Chemmy because I’ll be long gone by the time the final two bobsleigh runs begin at 1700Van/0100UK. Other medals today include the women’s 5000m speed skating, the men’s 4x10km relay cross-country, the women’s 3000m relay short track, and lastly the women’s aerials.
1010: Zettel still leads butTina Mazeof Slovenia has gone second. Maze won Slovenia’s first medal of the Games last week, a silver in the Super-G. And now she’s pushed back to third as France’sTaina Bariozsets a new fastest time of 1:15.14. Remember there are two runs, the second of which is coming up in around three hours’ time, so there will be no medals decided just yet.
1006: Austria’sKathrin Zettelgoes top in a time of 1:15.28. The next eight racers all have first names ending in A. Fact.
1003:Hoelzlsets us a pace with a time of 1:15.81. Here’s her German team-mateViktoria Rebensburgand the fog has changed dramatically in the space of one competitor - the visibility is suddenly much, much better. Rebensburg’s time is 1:15.47, about a third of a second quicker than Hoelzl.
1001: Tell you what, this fog isn’t exactly marvellous from a televisual point of view, even if the athletes are managing. There’s no wind, which helps, and we’re reliably informed everyone can see at least a couple of gates ahead as Kathrin Hoelzl makes her way down.
0956: You may recognise a few names in this giant slalom start list.Lindsey Vonnof the United States already has a downhill gold and Super-G bronze to her name, but has never finished on the podium in a World Cup giant slalom so may be less of a threat here. She goes 17th. World championKathrin Hoelzlof Germany is first down the hill and may well be the favourite. Britain’sChemmy Alcottgoes 24th. Thefull start listand live timings are available from our detailed results pages.
0950: What that also tells you is it’s raining in Vancouver, but the weather is more important up in Whistler, whererun one of the women’s giant slalomis set to take place in around 10 minutes’ time. Organisers have been worried about forecast fog, but it looks reasonable from our screens and BBC Sport’s Rob Hodgetts, on the slope, says it’s no worse than “low cloud and light snow”. We should be fine to get started.
0946: Hello, everybody. I had to go through a full security scan on entry to the live text cooler just now. They scanned everything but my umbrella, which was apparently “too wet” and simply got passed over the top of the scanner instead. Security here is watertightThis article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.