Marchand-Arvier leads women's DH training

Marie Marchand-Arvier of France led the opening downhill training session Wednesday as the World Cup circuit made its debut at a new resort.

TARVISIO, Italy — France’s Marie Marchand-Arvier clocked the fastest time in the first training run held Wednesday morning on Tarvisio’s challenging downhill course that will host its first World Cup races this weekend.
    The 21-year-old racer from Lorraine, in the northeast of France, steamed down the Pista di Prampero with great determination and was faster than Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl by .40.
     Switzerland’s Sylviane Berthod came in third, .41 behind Marchand-Arvier, who finished third in Cortina d’Ampezzo last month and 11th at Are during the recent World Championships.
    Renate Goetschl, who leads the downhill World Cup standings over American Julia Mancuso, clocked the sixth-best time, 1.07 seconds behind, after a controlled run down the long and bumpy Italian course.
    Mancuso, who has a delay of 134 points on the Austrian veteran in the downhill standings, was 10th, 1.40 seconds behind Marchand-Arvier. She is also fourth in the overall standings but needs to achieve a series of top performances this weekend to keep alive her hopes of challenging the Austrian stars in that competition.
    Marlies Schild and Nicole Hosp, the two other top favorites for the overall standings next to her and Goetschl, lost much time in the training run, but they mostly aim for a good performance in Friday’s super combined.
    Schild leads the overall standings after her recent win at Sierra Nevada, but Goetschl or Mancuso have a chance to pass her after the next two speed events on Saturday and Sunday.
    Schild, who clinched the slalom World Cup crown last weekend in Spain, where she won her sixth slalom of the season, also leads the super combined standings and should capture another crystal globe in Italy.
     She has an advance of 44 points on her teammate Michaela Kirchgasser, who won her first World Cup giant slalom race on Saturday in Spain. Mancuso, a super combined winner in January at Zauchensee, is third in that discipline with a gap of 45 points.
    Another training run is planned for Thursday. The downhill is scheduled for Saturday after the super combined and a super G on Sunday.

Women’s downhill training results

TARVISIO, Italy — Results Wednesday from the first training session for a World Cup downhill, on the 2.991-kilometer (1.9-mile) Prampero course:
1. Marie Marchand-Arvier, France, 1 minute, 54.65 seconds.
2. Elisabeth Goergl, Austria, 1:55.05.
3. Sylviane Berthod, Switzerland, 1:55.06.
4. Alexandra Meissnitzer, Austria, 1:55.18.
5. Kirsten Clark, United States, 1:55.63.
6. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 1:55.72.
7. Monika Dumermuth, Switzerland, 1:55.84.
8. Anja Paerson, Sweden, 1:55.90.
9. Britt Janyk, Canada, 1:56.04.
10. Daniela Merighetti, Italy, 1:56.05.
(tie) Julia Mancuso, United States, 1:56.05.