Akesel Lund Svindal showed the rest of the field just why he is the leading Downhiller of the moment. Just over a tenth of a second faster than Austrian Georg Streitberger and the returning Bode Miller, Svindal knows that the training means nothing if he cannot match it on race day but he left the finish area in Lake Louise smiling. For the rest of the field they will be looking at where they can catch the big Norwegian. Â Streitberger started to produce form at the end of last season and he will take great comfort from being so close to the Norwegian. Miller lead home a group of eight racers that were separated by just 0.17 seconds! Another making his return after time out was Beat Feuz and the Swiss racer was just 0.80 off the time set by Svindal.
After taking it fairly easy in the first training run and finishing 16th, big favourite Aksel Lund Svindal let the breaks go and clocked the fastest time of the day. He crossed the finish line in 1minute, 24.33 seconds, 0.14 seconds faster than second ranked Georg Streitberger and 0.45 seconds ahead of a returning Bode Miller. “It has been quite a bumpy ride down the course today,” Svindal said after his run. “I got surprised by how big the “Coaches' Corner” jump was today, there is a small kicker just before it and the flight was rather impressive.”
Dougie Crawford and TJ Baldwin finished 82nd and 83rd in the training run, 0.14 separating the two.
Full training run times