United States's Mikaela Shiffrin passes a gate during the first run of the women's giant slalom, at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Thursday, Feb.14, 2013. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)
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United States's Mikaela Shiffrin passes a gate during the first run of the women's giant slalom, at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Thursday, Feb.14, 2013. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)
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U.S. ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin arrives to attend a press conference at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. The U.S. Ski Team's success at the world championships is not being well received by the host Austrians. Led by Ted Ligety's two golds, plus a bronze from Julia Mancuso, the Americans top the medals table after seven of 11 events, which is all the more impressive considering that Lindsey Vonn had a season-ending crash in the opening event and Bode Miller is taking this season off to recover from left knee surgery. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
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Slovenia's Tina Maze speeds down the course on her way to win the silver medal in the women's giant slalom, at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Thursday, Feb.14, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
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Slovenia's Zan Kosir on his way to take the first place in the men's parallel slalom race at the Snowboard World Cup event in Bad Gastein, Austria, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
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Slovenia's Zan Kosir celebrates his victory after the men's parallel slalom race at the Snowboard World Cup event in Bad Gastein, Austria, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
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Switzerland's Patrizia Kummer celebrates her victory after the women's parallel slalom race at the Snowboard World Cup event in Bad Gastein, Austria, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
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Austria's Julia Dujmovits on her way to take the second place in the women's parallel slalom race at the Snowboard World Cup event in Bad Gastein, Austria, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
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Italy's Federica Brignone speeds down the course on her way to clock the sixth fastest time during the first run of an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
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Italy's Federica Brignone speeds down the course on her way to clock the sixth fastest time during the first run of an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
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Felix Loch from Germany speeds down the course during his first run at the men's luge World Cup race in Innsbruck Igls, Austria, on Sunday Nov. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
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Italy's Christof Innerhofer speeds down the course on his way to clock the fastest time during a training session for an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Feb. 22 , 2013. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)
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Canada's Jan Hudec speeds down the course on his way to clock the second fastest time during a training session for an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)
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Austria's Max Franz speeds down the course on his way to clock the third fastest time during a training session for an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)
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Italy's Werner Heel speeds down the course on his way to clock the fourth fastest time during a training session for an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)
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Finland's Andreas Romar speeds down the course during a training session for an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)
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Switzerland's Patrick Kueng speeds down the course during a training session for an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)
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Slovenia's Andrej Sporn speeds down the course during a training session for an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)
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Canada's Erik Guay speeds down the course during a training session for an alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)
Innerhofer leads men's World Cup downhill training
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) —
Christof Innerhofer of Italy returned to one of his favorite courses and posted the fastest time in Friday's final training run for a men's downhill as the World Cup season resumes.
Fresh snow and fog forced organizers to shorten the course to a super-G length for the second straight day.
Innerhofer covered the 2.18-kilometer (1.35-mile) course in 1 minute, 9.17 seconds, ahead of Jan Hudec of Canada and Max Franz of Austria.
Hudec was 0.33 seconds behind and Franz 0.36 back. The top 15 finishers all finished within a second of each other.
Innerhofer failed to win a medal at the recent world championships in Schladming, Austria. But he won three medals when the worlds were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen two years ago — gold in the super-G, silver in the super-combined and bronze in the downhill.
He also shared fourth place in last year's downhill at the German resort.
Another Italian, Werner Heel, was fourth, ahead of Steven Nyman of the United States.
Eric Guay of Canada was seventh. He won the downhill in Garmisch two years ago and was second in last year's World Cup race. He also clinched the super-G World Cup title by winning the final race in 2010 on this course.
Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, the downhill gold medalist from Schladming, shared 26th place in training. Svindal needs a good result in Saturday's downhill since he is already more than 200 points behind Austria's Marcel Hirscher, the defending overall champion.
"I am focusing on downhill and super-G races and trying to earn as many points as possible," Svindal said. "Marcel has a big lead, I can only hope he makes mistakes and he's too good to make mistakes."
With fresh snow falling late Friday, it was unlikely the organizers would be able to mount a full-length downhill on the famed Kandahar course.
A giant slalom is slated for Sunday, when Hirscher will have a chance to extend his lead.
Tags:
ap, italy, max franz, jan hudec, christof innerhofer, worlds, canada, world, place, sports, world championships, friday, organizers, germany, europe, men, austria, medals, fastest time, earth, alpine skiing combined, fog, bronze, world cup season, garmisch-partenkirchen, downhill training, fresh snow, favorite courses, final training, super-g length, german resort, schaldming, franz joseph i of austria
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