Are: Walchhofer fastest in DH training; Paerson hopes to inch closer to Kostelic

Are: Walchhofer fastest in DH training; Paerson hopes to inch closer to Kostelic{mosimage}ARE, Sweden – Michael Walchhofer posted the fastest time in the only men’s downhill training session at the World Cup Finals on Tuesday, and Anja Paerson again had the best run for the women.

Walchhofer, who is trying to win his second consecutive World Cup downhill title, needs to finish fifth or better in Wednesday’s race to win the discipline title. The Austrian finished in 1 minute, 44.56 seconds – .08 ahead of Kristian Ghedina of Italy.

Daron Rahlves of the United States, who is retiring at the end of the season, was third in 1:44.96, followed by Fritz Strobl of Austria in 1:44.99.

”Today is very promising for the race,” said the 30-year-old Walchhofer, the Olympic downhill silver medalist. ”The title was very important for me last year and I was very focused on it. This year I’m more relaxed about the title because my goal was the Olympics.”

Bode Miller, who skipped the recent races in Asia, finished 18th after landing heavily on the top jump.

Walchhofer leads the downhill standings with 498 points. Strobl is second with 441 points, followed by Rahlves with 408.

Paerson is trying to win her third straight overall title, and she could gain 100 points on leader Janica Kostelic in the downhill.

Michaela Dorfmeister, who is also retiring at the end of this week’s Finals, has already secured both the women’s downhill and super G titles. But Wednesday’s downhill could give Paerson a huge boost in the defense of her overall title.

The Olympic bronze medalist trails Kostelic by 254 points with four races to go.

”With the overall, I’m just going to ski and have fun and if I come tighter it’s good and we can make it more exciting,” Paerson said. ”But Janica has a big lead and she feels pretty comfortable, otherwise she would have started in the downhill.

”I skied out six races and I didn’t start the seventh one and you lose a lot of points by doing that. If I can keep Dorfmeister behind me and stay in second position I’m going to be really proud of my season,” the Swede added.

Dorfmeister is 238 points behind Paerson.
Kostelic, who carefully guards her health since having her thyroid removed two seasons ago, opted to sit out of the downhill and focus on the super G, giant slalom and slalom. She has already clinched the slalom title.

Paerson, who also was fastest in Monday’s training, led again Tuesday in 1:24.19. Jessica Lindell-Vikarby of Sweden was second in 1:24.24, followed by Nadia Fanchini of Italy in third at 1:24.55.

– The Associated Press

World Cup Finals downhill training
Women
1. Anja Paerson, Sweden, 1 minute, 24.19 seconds.
2. Jessica Lindell-Vikarby, Sweden, 1:24.24.
3. Nadia Fanchini, Italy, 1:24.55.
4. Lindsey Kildow, United States, 1:24.56.
5. Kathrin Zettel, Austria, 1:25.04.
6. Marlies Schild, Austria, 1:25.07.
7. Michaela Dorfmeister, Austria, 1:25.17.
8. Andrea Fischbacher, Austria, 1:25.22.
9. Tina Maze, Slovenia, 1:25.23.
10. Stacey Cook, United States, 1:25.28.

Men
1 Michael WALCHHOFER (AUT) 1:44.56
2 Kristian GHEDINA (ITA) 1:44.64 +00.08
3 Daron RAHLVES (USA) 1:44.96 +00.40
4 Fritz STROBL (AUT) 1:44.99 +00.43
5 Didier CUCHE (SUI) 1:45.18 +00.62
5 Finlay MICKEL (GBR) 1:45.18 +00.62
7 Klaus KROELL (AUT) 1:45.26 +00.69
8 Antoine DENERIAZ (FRA) 1:45.35 +00.79
9 Kjetil Andre AAMODT (NOR) 1:45.51 +00.94
10 Steven NYMAN (USA) 1:45.59 +01.02
11 Aksel Lund SVINDAL (NOR) 1:45.75 +01.19
12 Didier DEFAGO (SUI) 1:45.77 +01.21
13 Hermann MAIER (AUT) 1:45.93 +01.37
14 Yannick BERTRAND (FRA) 1:45.97 +01.41
15 Bruno KERNEN (SUI) 1:46.13 +01.57
16 Peter FILL (ITA) 1:46.35 +01.79
17 Christoph GRUBER (AUT) 1:46.48 +01.91
18 Bode MILLER (USA) 1:46.95 +02.38
19 Tobias GRUENENFELDER (SUI) 1:47.04 +02.48
20 Andreas BUDER (AUT) 1:47.07 +02.51
21 Andreas SCHIFFERER (AUT) 1:47.32 +02.76
22 Christopher BECKMANN (USA) 1:47.86 +03.30
23 Ted LIGETY (USA) 1:49.47 +04.91