GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) — Austrian skier Mirjam Puchner was fastest in the second training run for a World Cup downhill on Friday, with Olympic champion Sofia Goggia seventh as she worked on her comeback.
Puchner raced down the almost 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) Kandahar course in 1 minute, 40.22 seconds down, finishing 0.08 seconds ahead of Corinne Suter and 0.25 ahead of Ramona Siebenhofer.
Siebenhofer won both downhills in Cortina d'Apezzo, Italy, last weekend, and Suter was the fastest in the first training run on Thursday.
Nicole Schmidhofer, who won the season's opening two downhills in Lake Louise, was fifth, 0.46 off the pace.
Goggia, who broke a bone in her right ankle during a fall in giant slalom training in October, improved on her time from the day before and was 0.55 off the pace.
The downhill was originally scheduled for Saturday, but organizers switched the weekend's program because of adverse weather forecasts, with Sunday's super-G now on Saturday and the downhill taking place on Sunday.
Lindsey Vonn has decided to skip this weekend's races to give her ailing knees a chance to recover. Vonn, who hinted at immediate retirement on Sunday after failing to finish a super-G in Cortina, is targeting the world championships in Are, Sweden, which open on Feb. 5.
