Crans-Montana: Fanchini wins training, Vonn a DQ

CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland — The Nationale course won the second training run. Overnight the friendliness of Thursday went away as the surface became slick and much faster. Clouds rolled in, flattening the visibility.
    In the end, 25 percent of the field failed to make all the gates including downhill champion Lindsey Vonn.
    For the record the best time went to Italy’s Nadia Fanchini who shaved two seconds off yesterday’s time to finish in 1.36.18. Maria Riesch of Germany was second, 0.75 back and Canada's Emily Brydon was third.
    Vonn admitted that she had made some pretty big mistakes, but that she wasn’t entirely unhappy with her run.
    "It was pretty bumpy all the way down, but in the middle section the bumps really rattled me," Vonn said, "and I got pretty late going off a jump and I just didn’t make the next gate."
CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland — The Nationale course won the second training run. Overnight the friendliness of Thursday went away as the surface became slick and much faster. Clouds rolled in, flattening the visibility.
    In the end, 25 percent of the field failed to make all the gates including downhill champion Lindsey Vonn.
    For the record the best time went to Italy’s Nadia Fanchini who shaved two seconds off yesterday’s time to finish in 1.36.18. Maria Riesch of Germany was second, 0.75 back and Canada's Emily Brydon was third.
    Vonn admitted that she had made some pretty big mistakes, but that she wasn’t entirely unhappy with her run.
    "It was pretty bumpy all the way down, but in the middle section the bumps really rattled me," Vonn said, "and I got pretty late going off a jump and I just didn’t make the next gate."
    Vonn said the increased speed combined with the flat light made the top jump much tougher.
    "Yesterday it was pretty small and today it turned into a 35 meter jump and the light was so flat you could not see the landing," Vonn added.
    Stacey Cook completed her run, taking the 20th spot.
    Julia Mancuso finished, but she put her skis sideways early on her run and simply skied through the gates. Visibly upset, the frustrated Mancuso, who was in the running for the overall this time last year, stood head down for 15 minutes after her run.
    Save for Brydon, the hot Canadian squad had its share of troubles. Both Kelly Vanderbeek and Britt Janyk missed gates on the way down.
    Just to make the upcoming race more interesting, both Austrian aces, Renate Goetschl and overall contender Nicole Hosp, finished strongly. Goetschl was eighth despite throwing her skis sideways down the final pitch. Hosp wound up 11th.
    In the afternoon, the jury decided the speeds coming into the first significant jump would be too high on race day. Four gates were altered about a meter each to slow speeds coming into the mid-station jump.
    "It is not much," said Alex Hoedlmoser, U.S. head downhill coach, "Just enough to slow the girls down on race day when they are on race-prepared skis and pushing."
    Mancuso will start 16 and Vonn 18. The race is scheduled to start at 11:30 CET (5.30 am, EDT).