Alex Pullin of Australia was the top qualifier with a time of 51.67sec, with Austrian racers Markus Schairer and Lukas Pachner following in second and third respectively.

Italy's Omar Visintin is best placed to take advantage of Haemmerle's failure today but even he struggled, qualifying in 26th place.

He will have to improve on his performance tomorrow if he is to usurp the Swiss at the top of the leaderboard.

Frenchwoman Charlotte Bankes, winner of the event in La Molina two years ago, finished the day in pole position in the women's event as she clocked 52.35 to breeze into the final.

Italy's Michela Moioli was also looking good with a run of 52.48, while Faye Gulini of the United States was third fastest.

World Cup leader Belle Brockhoff of Australia needed the second run of the time trials to make it to the finals of the top 16 women as she also found it tough out on the course.

Brockhoff is being hunted down by Olympic champion Eva Samková in the race for the overall title as she has 3,700 points, with the Czech athlete not far away on 3,570.

Action had to be rescheduled at the parallel giant slalom event in Kayseri in Turkey due to heavy fog.

The finals for both men and women were due to be held today but were put back to tomorrow "after the visibility got too poor to guarantee a safe and fair competition".

Olympic champion Julia Dujmovits of Austria is not competing as she withdrew as a result of fears over security.

The 30-year-old has opted not to travel to the competition, where the last parallel giant slalom race of the season is being staged, after a suicide car bomb killed 13 people in the Turkish city in December.