Alpine Skiing

WHISTLER, B.C. - Canada's so-called advantage in knowing the Dave Murray Olympic downhill run well may be "shrinking."

But when training was finally completed yesterday, two skiers were still firmly among the leaders and have medal hopes for Saturday.

Austrian Michael Walchhofer was promoted to first after Didier Cuche of Switzerland was disqualified for missing the 14th gate to lead the 79 finishers on a course that was shorter and higher up the mountain than the original track.

Officials tried to keep racers out of the persistent snow and fog that dogged the original finish area. Walchhofer was timed in 1:34.46.

Right behind the fastest man were two Canadians who got to start early and posted fast times, Robbie Dixon who was timed in 1:34.55 in second spot and Erik Guay, who was timed in 1:34.68 for third.

The Canadians have faced criticism for having the opportunity to stage training camps on the mountain while Games officials responsible for the venues closed it to skiers from other countries.

"But I think the advantage is shrinking as we have more chances on the run," said Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein.

"Training runs are training runs," said Dixon, who was also second in Wednesday's training before course officials wiped out the day because of foggy conditions. "It comes down to race day, that's the day that counts.

"It's nice to gain the confidence from training days, but you have to hope you can do the same things on race day.

"We've had the last four years to get used to everything here, from sun to flat light to rain to snow. We'll be ready for anything."

Guay, who has struggled with some back problems all season, has had his best results on the Super-G circuit, with four, fifth and seventh-place World Cup finishes, but appears to be rounding into form for a run at the podium Saturday.

The rest of the top-10 was rounded out by Ambrosi Hoffman of Switzerland, Didier Defago of Switzerland, Klaus Kroell of Austria, Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, Bode Miller of the United States, Mario Scheiber of Austria and Andrew Weibrecht of the United States.

The top 13 skiers were all within a second of the leader.

Walchhofer said there was not much fog at the top of his run. "I had really good conditions. The (snow) base is good. It was important for me to have a second run, not just one, because it's my first time on this run," said Walchhofer, who skied a World Cup Super G at Whistler, but never a World Cup downhill. He said if there are no further training runs, he's seen enough of the course to make Saturday a goiod Olympic race.

"The critical part of this course? It will be from the top to the bottom," Cuche said cryptically of Saturday's gold medal race. At 35, he is bidding to become the Olympics' oldest alpine gold medal winner.

One of the best surprises Canadian skiing received was the 13th-place finish in training of Jan Hudec, who has been looking for his confidence all season after going through a sixth knee operation in his career.

"It wasn't super good, I got rattled around the whole way down, but it was good enough to get a bunch more confidence today," Hudec said. "I was pleased to see my time (1:35.49) so close to the top guys. I was probably one of the most confident runs I've had in the past couple of weeks."

He said that after the leaders have had two runs at the Whistler downhill - including Wednesday's cancellation - "the advantage is almost gone. Now, we just get to race. Those guys, like Cuche and Walchhofer, they're vets. It might be only the second time they've actually skied it, but they've seen video and gone over it so many times in their heads that their bodies think they've skied it 30-40-50 times."

Manuel Osborne-Paradis, who went to school at Whistler and knows the course well, finished 21st in 1:35.91 in the official ranking at training.

Louis-Pierre Helie was 46th, Tyler Nella 54th, Ryan Semple 55th and slalom specialist Michael Janyk 72nd. Those last four were on the downhill as training for next week's Super Combined race.

"I stopped before the finish because I didn't see any gates," said Osborne-Paradis. He said he received word at the start to expect fog after a section of the course known as Coach's Corner and that he'd have to slow down after that.

"I really wanted to nail the last gate, but couldn't see it. It was just too hard to focus quickly enough," said Osborne-Paradis, who has difficulty skiing in flate light. He said he may have laser surgery on his eyes this summer to try and improve his vision.