Kitzbühel (Austria) (AFP) - Olympic champion Beat Feuz safely negotiated the second and final downhill training in Kitzbuehel on Thursday in his bid for a fourth consecutive triumph on the Streif course.
The Swiss star, who also won downhill bronze and super-G silver at the 2018 Olympics and will retire at the end of the season, clocked 1min 59.46sec down the most demanding course on the men's World Cup circuit.
Feuz, who won two downhills in the Austrian resort in 2021 as well as last year, didn't hit full throttle by some margin, finishing 2.57sec off the leading time set by France's Cyprien Sarrazin.
Italy's Mattia Casse timed the top registered speed, hitting an eye-watering 141.21 km/h (88mph) in the final section.
While Kitzbuehel has been witness to many crashes over the years, there were none in training on Thursday, with downhills scheduled for Friday and Saturday, followed by a slalom on Sunday.
Feuz's teammate Marco Odermatt, the runaway leader in the overall World Cup standings, looked very comfortable in finishing 11th, 0.74sec off the pace.
His arch-rival Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, who won a downhill in Kitzbuehel last season, was 17th (+0.98sec).
Two other previous downhill winners were on show: Italian veteran Dominik Paris and Germany's Thomas Dressen.
Three-time winner (2013, 2017, 2019) Paris, 33, was one spot ahead of Kilde while 2018 champion Dressen was 1.82sec behind Sarrazin's leading time down the 3.3km-long Streif course on the Hahnenkamm mountain overlooking Kitzbuehel.
