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| - French veteran Johan Clarey topped times for the final training run for Saturday's famed World Cup downhill in Kitzbuehel. Clarey timed 1min 55.69sec down the fabled 3.3km-long Streif course in the Austrian resort in perfect, sunny conditions on Thursday. The 39-year-old has some history in Kitzbuehel, having finished third in the 2017 downhill and second in last season's super-G, two podium finishes of just six in a career that kicked off in 2004. Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was second fastest, 0.55sec off the pace, while local favourite Matthias Mayer, gold medallist in downhill at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and in the super-G in 2018, was third (+0.60). Norway's Kjetil Jansrud, reigning world downhill champion and Olympic silver medallist in the discipline at Pyeongchang in 2018, came in 12th, at 1.24sec, having topped Wednesday's training. Italian Dominik Paris, a three-time downhill winner in Kitzbuehel (2013, 2017, 2019), was the major absentee from the slopes, the reigning world super-G champion having ruptured knee ligaments in training, an injury that sees his season cut short. Racers congregate back on the Hahnenkamm mountain for the super-G on Friday. The downhill is on Saturday, with a slalom on Sunday. lp/jc
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