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SPORTS Wednesday 27 February 2019
Bad timing: Women's WCup downhill result amended 3 days on

GENEVA (AP) — Call it a hlen, who was still second,
case of bad timing, in Swit- and Gut-Behrami, who was
zerland of all places. upgraded to third.
In a nation renowned for But between Saturday
precision clocks and Alpine and Tuesday, and after an
skiing, Swiss timekeepers Austrian team objection,
of a World Cup race got the manual times were re-
things so wrong that the evaluated and found to be
results of a women's down- wrong.
hill had to be altered three FIS said Tuesday that recal-
days after it was run — with culating the four Swiss rac-
two skiers knocked off the ers' runs had now added
podium as a result. 0.13 seconds to their new
The fiasco stemmed from times, dropping Haehlen
faulty finish-line timing, and Gut-Behrami dropped
which had already caused to fourth and sixth. For Hae-
organizers to amend the hlen, that meant losing her
results list once on Satur- first career podium finish.
day shortly after the race Schmidhofer rose from
ended. fourth to runner-up, and
Having to change it a sec- extended her points lead
ond time left both the In- in the World Cup downhill
ternational Ski Federation standings with two races
(FIS) and Swiss Timing — the remaining. Women Downhill winners pose on the podium, with from left, second placed Joana Haehlen of
sports industry leader tied Another Swiss who was Switzerland, winner Sofia Goggia of Italy and third placed Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland, cel-
to luxury watch brands timed electronically, world ebrate during the winner's ceremony after the women's Downhill race of the FIS Alpine Ski World
Cup season in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019.
Longines and Omega, the championships silver med-
Olympic Games timekeep- alist Corinne Suter, rose
er — facing criticism and from fourth to third.
ridicule from some athletes. Organizers said the equip-
"Is FIS a joke????" French ment failure was in part
skier Julien Lizeroux wrote due to the warm weather
on Twitter after seeing the that had caused the fast-
revised result. softening snow to melt.
The governing body ac- "The reason that the four
cepted its share of the times were not recorded
blame Tuesday in a state- was as a consequence
ment confirming the of the set-up of the photo
amended result. cells at the finish, which
"FIS and Swiss Timing would were mounted too high,"
like to apologize to all com- FIS said. "After two training
petitors, teams, media and days the snow level was
Alpine Skiing followers for somewhat lower due to
this unfortunate incident," the multiple runs and slip-
the Switzerland-based or- ping on the course, as well
ganization said. as melting due to the sun-
The problems started on a light.
sunbathed Saturday morn- "Swiss Timing has since
ing at Crans-Montana checked the timing tapes
when the electronic clock and recalculated all the
failed to stop for four racers manual times from the
crossing the finish line. race using the correct
The four — all Swiss, wear- methodology." Swiss Timing
ing start bib numbers 2, 6, is run by Switzerland-based
12 and 27 — were all later Swatch Group, and brands
given times calculated World Cup ski races with
manually. the Longines name.
While the race winner, On its website, Swiss Timing
Olympic champion Sofia states: "We are commit-
Goggia of Italy, was unaf- ted to the art of measuring
fected by the problems, times with precision and re-
Swiss racers Joana Hae- liability using the technolo-
hlen and Lara Gut-Behrami gies we have developed
were initially placed sec- to meet the most exacting
ond and fourth, respec- of standards in every sport."
tively. Race organizers at Crans-
Soon after the race ended Montana, who had no say
— and third-place Nicole in choosing the timekeep-
Schmidhofer of Austria had ing operation, must hope
taken part in a finish-area the debacle is not bad
ceremony — new manual timing for its bid to host the
times were given to Hae- 2025 world championships.