ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. Continuously cold temperatures and sunshine greeted the 51 racers, who competed the second and final downhill training on Thursday, 24 February 2011.

Anja Paerson of Sweden won Wednesday’s first training run by .52 seconds over Lindsey Vonn and on Thursday she also nailed the ladies’ second downhill training at home in Are, Sweden.

But this time her competitors came threateningly close to her. Only one hundredths of a second separated her from the second fastest racer, which today was Slovenia’s Tina Maze while America’s Lindsey Vonn was five hundredths of a second behind in third.

When Paerson came to the finish wearing bib No. 17 with a run time of 1:42.84, she positioned herself in the top spot of the ranking being almost two seconds faster than the previous day but so was everyone else. She pushed Maze, who ran bib No. 13 and finished in a time of 1.42.85 to second place while discipline leader Lindsey Vonn carrying bib No. 16 was relegated to the third place. She finished in a time of 1:42.89.

The fourth place finisher Stacey Cook of America was only .33 seconds behind the winning time, while the French Marion Rolland was already out by more than a second in fifth with a time of 1:43.91.

On Friday, the Are World Cup races will begin with the super combined. First run is at 10.30 (super g) and second run at 13.30 (slalom). The downhill race will be held on Saturday starting at 10:30 local time.

FISalpine.com
Thursday 24 February 2011