Olympics-Alpine skiing-Italian trio set pace in sun-kissed downhill training

By Martyn Herman

BORMIO, Italy, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Italy’s speed team laid down a marker on the second training day for the Olympic downhill as Mattia Casse, Florian Schieder and Giovanni Franzoni stepped on the gas to set the three quickest times on Thursday.

Dazzling sunshine on a crisp day in Bormio provided much better conditions than Wednesday’s opening training on the Stelvio piste as the world’s fastest ski racers fine-tuned their preparations for Saturday’s showpiece event.

While Swiss gold-medal favourite Marco Odermatt clearly used his run to tweak his racing lines, the Italians were nearing race pace to the delight of a smattering of officials and Games staff in the huge empty grandstand at the finish.

Casse, who boasts five top-10 finishes in this season’s World Cup downhills, clocked 1:52.85 down the brutal 3.2km track, more than three seconds faster than Wednesday’s top time set by American Ryan Cochran-Siegle.

The 35-year-old reached close to 140 km/h and soared around 40 metres over the San Pietro jump that organisers modified after Wednesday’s run to increase the ‘flight time’.

Schieder was 0.45 seconds back with young gun Franzoni, a recent winner in Kitzbuehel, 0.87 slower.

“It was so much fun to go down there, I hope the terrain will also be like this on Saturday, then we have a great race,” Schieder told reporters while his team mate Casse said the slope conditions were getting better by the day.

SKIERS WANT EVEN FASTER CONDITIONS

Italian veteran Dominik Paris — winner of a record six downhills on the iconic Stelvio — was two seconds slower than his Italian team mate Casse and said he hoped for ever harder, faster conditions come Saturday.

“It was faster today but not as fast as this slope can be,” he said.

Norway’s Fredrik Moeller, airlifted to hospital after dislocating his shoulder in a crash on Wednesday, failed to start and the Stelvio again showed how dangerous it can be when things go wrong as Austria’s Daniel Hemetsberger clattered into the safety netting at high speed after losing control.

“I did the exact same as in Kitzbuehel, that’s the frustrating part, because you can make the mistake once but twice the same one? Idiot,” said Hemetsberger, sporting a visibly swollen left eye and a bloody nose.

Odermatt has dominated the World Cup season in all three disciplines he competes in.

He was only 23rd quickest on Thursday but clearly had the brakes on long before the finish as he kept his powder dry.

“Nice day today, nice weather, everything is good,” the Swiss, who is targeting multiple medals to add to the Olympic gold he won in giant slalom in 2022, told reporters.

“I think I found my takeaways, I have a line in my head, I’ve tried two different things with the material and now just need to analyse it well and then all should work.”

With bad weather forecast to return overnight, Friday’s final training run is in doubt, although many of the top racers would probably sit it out anyway.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, additional reporting by Marleen Kasebier and Lisa Jucca editing by Ed Osmond)