The 57th Saslong Classic opened on Tuesday with the first downhill training session. In fantastic weather conditions, Italy's Mattia Casse set the fastest time.

Casse clearly distanced himself from the competition during his training run, achieving a time of 2:02.19 minutes, a lead of over four tenths of a second. The “Azzurro” proved that he is definitely to be reckoned with in Val Gardena/Gröden two years ago, when he surprisingly took third place in the downhill classic.

Behind the fastest in training, overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt took second place. The exceptional Swiss skier, who already has three podium finishes on the Saslong, was 44 hundredths of a second slower than Casse. Third place went to Austrian Romed Baumann, who has been competing for Germany for many years (+0.57 seconds).

Innerhofer puts in a strong performance
Local favorite Christof Innerhofer provided a real highlight in the first downhill training session. On his 40th birthday, the skier from Gais clocked the fourth-best time, impressively demonstrating that he is still in the game. Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin completed the top five, with his compatriot Nils Allegre finishing sixth.

The US athletes, who are usually strong in Val Gardena/Gröden, were not among the top finishers. Nevertheless, with Jared Goldberg (eighth place) and Ryan Cochran-Siegle (twelfth place), two athletes still managed to finish in the top 15. Among the Austrian speed aces, Otmar Striedinger in ninth place, the surprisingly strong Felix Hacker in eleventh place and Daniel Hemetsberger in fifteenth place achieved the best results.

Paris and Bennett keep a low profile
Last year's winners Bryce Bennett and Dominik Paris did not show their hand in the first training run. While the American only set the 34th-fastest time, the power pack from South Tyrol was content with 41st place.

The two other South Tyroleans, Florian Schieder (31st) and Max Perathoner (44th), also finished outside the top 30 athletes.

Another downhill training session is planned on the Saslong on Wednesday with start at 11:45 am.

The complete results list for the first downhill training session can be found here.

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