Alpine skiing – World Cup champion Hirscher almost hit by drone

Published 12/23/2015, 9:14 AM EST

REUTERS – Four-time World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher has criticised the use of drones to film races after one crashed and almost hit him in a race at Madonna di Campiglio on Tuesday.

Television pictures showed the Austrian in the middle of his second run in a World Cup slalom race when the drone crashed to the ground behind him, shattering into pieces.

“This is horrible,” Hirscher, 26, said. “This can never happen again. This (could have caused) a serious injury.”

Hirscher, silver medallist in slalom at the Sochi Olympics in 2014, finished second in the race behind Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, reclaiming the overall World Cup lead from Aksel Lund Svindal.

The men’s World Cup remains in Italy over Christmas with two downhill races in Santa Caterina. The women are competing in slalom events in Lienz in Austria.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.