Wengen: Heel wins second training run

Italian Werner Heel collected the second of three training runs at Wengen, Switzerland, on Wednesday ahead of a super combined Friday and the famed Lauberhorn downhill Sunday.
    The result was surprising as Heel has never made the top 30 in a race at Wengen.
    The 25-year-old steamed down the 4,480 meters of length and vertical drop of 1,028 meters in 2 minutes, 30.89 seconds, a second slower than Marco Buechel in Tuesday's run.
    Switzerland’s Didier Cuche was again second this time by 0.22 of a second while Slovenia’s Andrej Jerman came in third 0.53 back. He was followed by former winner Michael Walchhofer from Austria and his teammate Klaus Kroell. Marco Sullivan was sixth and Steven Nyman 15th.

Italy’s Werner Heel, taking advantage of his bib 4, clocked the fastest time today in the second training run held on the Lauberhorn downhill course at Wengen, Switzerland, the oldest "Classic" on the world cup tour.
    The 25-year-old steamed down the 4,480 meters of length and vertical drop of 1,028 meters in 2:30.89, a second slower than Marco Buechel on Tuesday's run.
    Switzerland’s Didier Cuche was again second this time by 0.22 of a second while Slovenia’s Andrej Jerman came in third .53 back. He was followed by former winner Michael Walchhofer from Austria and his teammate Klaus Kroell. Marco Sullivan was sixth and Steven Nyman 15th.
    Buechel was a far 17th today, a few tenths of a second behind Hermann Maier in 13th, but ahead of last year’s winner Bode Miller in 19th, 2.83 seconds behind.
    Canada’s Erik Guay and France’s Jean Baptiste Grange decided to skip the training run and save some energy for the coming days. Weather permitting another training is planned for Thursday and the first competition, a downhill-slalom super combined on Friday.
    Weather conditions were not as good as Tuesday and most skiers choose not to take too many risks on the longest course of the World Cup calendar. "The course is still in good shape but the visibility not as fair because of the clouds yet it was important to get back on the slope because you never know in this part of the Alps which kind of weather is ahead of us,” said Buechel who aims for his first podium finish in this competition. He was fifth here last winter.
    Prior the training run, the organisers put on a small celebration in one of the most treacherous parts of the superb Swiss course – named until Wednesday "S-Bruggli" which means the "little bridge S-turns". It has been renamed as "Kernen-S" in honor of former World Champion Bruno Kernen, a winner here in 2003. Kernen suffered two bad crashes in these icy turns in past years.
    The 35-year-old Swiss injured his knees at the end of last winter after suffering another horrendous fall in downhill during the tour finals at Lenzerheide, Switzerland. He became a father last fall. "It’s quite a privilege to have my name on that slope, I’m really proud of this," said an emotional Kernen, who announced his decision to quit ski racing at the start of the Lauberhorn run last summer. "It is something special to have my name on such a prestigious course," said Kernen, who grew up less than an hour drive away from Wengen.