OLYMPICS: Alpine skiing-Italian trio set pace in men's downhill training

Italy's speed team laid down a marker on the second training day for the Olympic downhill with Mattia Casse, Florian Schieder and Giovanni Franzoni setting the three quickest times on Thursday.

Sparkling sunshine on a crisp day in Bormio provided better conditions than Wednesday's opening training on the Stelvio piste as the world's fastest ski racers continued their preparations for Saturday's showpiece event.

While Swiss gold-medal favourite Marco Odermatt clearly used his run to check his racing lines, the Italians were nearing race pace to the delight of a smattering of officials and Games staff in the huge empty grandstand at the finish.

Casse, who boasts five top-10 finishes in this season's World Cup downhills, clocked 1:52.85 down the brutal 3.2km track, more than three seconds faster than Wednesday's top time set by American Ryan Cochran-Siegle.

The 35-year-old reached close to 140 km/h and soared around 40 metres over the San Pietro jump that organisers modified after Wednesday's run to increase the 'flight time'.

Schieder was 0.45 seconds back with young gun Franzoni, a recent winner in Kitzbuehel, 0.87 slower.

Stelvio specialist Dominik Paris -- winner of a record six Stelvio downhills -- was two seconds slower than his Italian teammate Casse but will be one of the big favourites on Saturday.

Norway's Fredrik Moeller, who was taken to hospital after dislocating his shoulder in a crash on Wednesday, failed to start and the Stelvio again showed how dangerous it can be when Austria's Daniel Hemetsburger hit the safety netting at high speed after losing control.

Odermatt, who has dominated the World Cup season in all three disciplines he competes in, was only 23rd quickest but had the brakes on long before the finish.

-Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond/Reuters