Following the session and the completion of the men's and women's sitting and vision-impaired Downhill events, the 36 competitors in the men's standing class were set to contest their Paralympic Downhill, only for the Whistler weather to step and postpone the day's program for the fourth time this week.

In fact, since the alpine skiing training began on the scheduled opening day last Wednesday, not one full session on any day since has been completed due to conditions consisting of heavy snow and thick fog.

But while the frustration among everyone in Whistler continues to build, Mayberry said he felt comfortable with his preparations, despite not knowing exactly when he would compete again.

The Australian double leg-amputee, from Ewingsdale on the NSW far North Coast, clocked a time of 1:23.68 ahead of Switzerland's Michael Brugger (1.23.88) and Markus Salcher (1:23.98) of Austria.

It continues a golden run of form for Marty, who won two medals at the recent World Cup Finals in Aspen, Colorado.

"It definitely gives me confidence going to the race, whatever happens. I know I can ski better than I did today. And when I finally get the opportunity, I will be confident because I have been skiing really well in the Downhill lately.

"I feel good. I'm not feeling any pressure, I'm in a good space."Mayberry's team-mates Cameron Rahbula-Rahbula (1:26.18 - 12th) and Mitchell Gourley (1:26.97 - 16th) also skied with promise while Toby Kane did not finish after coming unstuck in a tricky section of the course. He was unhurt.

"It's definitely very frustrating. You can't control the weather but it would have great to have got the race out of the way. You can't do much about it," Mayberry said.

"As a team, we'll analyse what we did and try and pick things up that we can do better. There were also things I did well today and I will try and keep that going.

"Ski racing is the kind of sport where you have to be flexible. You're used to things changing, so we'll just go home, work out what the plan is and then go from there."

Source - APC

tags: olympic, paralympics, marty, mayberry, downhill, whistler, creekside, training, weather, postponed

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