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

BORMIO, Italy, Feb 5 : 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,