High winds lead to postponement of Olympic biathlon

Pyeongchang, South Korea (dpa) - Germany‘s Laura Dahlmeier has to wait another day before aiming to complete a biathlon gold medal hat-trick at the Winter Olympics, as high winds forced the cancellation of the 15-kilometres race.Organizers said some four hours before the planned start on Wednesday night that the race would be postponed until Thursday 0815 GMT, with the men‘s 20km following at 1130 GMT."We don‘t want to risk having unfair conditions for the athletes with gusts of up to 10 metres per second - especially in the individual event with four rounds of shooting and penalty minutes," Nicole Resch, secretary general of the ruling body IBU, told dpa."The weather forecast for tomorrow is much better."Dahlmeier is the favourite for the race after winning the sprint Saturday and pursuit Monday. In the individual race athletes don‘t ski penalty laps for missed targets but have a minute added to the skiing time for each miss.The wind also forced the cancellation of the women‘s slalom earlier Saturday, and in the coastal cluster in Gangneung all activities in Olympic Park have been suspended and spectators advised to stay indoors, according to the organizing committee POCOG.