Second men's downhill training shortened

On Friday, the second and last men’s training run of the World Ski Championships in Åre 2019 took place on a shortened track. Overnight snowfall and windy conditions at the start didn’t allow a start from the original downhill start position, and the ladies’ Alpine Combined race had priority on the lower section. So the training was held from the SG start to Galgbacken.

The recently crowed Super-G World Champion Dominik Paris clocked the fastest time in this training run. The South Tyrolean, who already won two downhills in Bormio and Kitzbuehel this season, is one of the big favorite for the downhill and could become the 3rd male athlete to claim the speed double at a single World Ski Championships.

Johan Clarey and Brice Roger earned the 2nd and 3rd place of this training. The French team was still doing selections to designate the four athletes who would participate in the downhill, but both are also serious candidates for a medal. Johan Clarey equaled his career best results and celebrated a first World Championships medal lately, while Brice Roger came back from an early season arm injury with strong training results and is eager to show it off on race day.

As the course was shortened so much, those results are to be read carefully. Defending World Champion Beat Feuz, Olympic Gold medalist Aksel Lund Svindal, the winners of the last World Cup downhill in Åre Vincent Kriechmayr and Matthias Mayer are all ready to push hard for the set of downhill medals at these World Championships.

The race is scheduled on Saturday 9th February, at 12:30. An attempt will be made tomorrow to train the upper section in the morning, before holding the downhill race from the original start. However, the weather forecast is not so favorable and the chances to have a full length downhill are pretty small.

Results are availalbe here: Downhill TRA 2