VAL D'ISERE, France - Marie Marchand-Arvier of France posted the fastest time in a World Cup downhill training run on Thursday, edging out Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein by a fraction of a second.
Marchand-Arvier clocked a time of 1 minute, 51.45 seconds, making her .01 faster than Weirather and .17 quicker than former World Cup winner Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, as skiers enjoyed good conditions on the Oreiller Killy course.
"It's only training, I'm not going to get carried away," Marchand-Ariver said. "All the times are really close because the snow is easy to ski on."
Hoefl-Riesch, who won a slalom race in Levi, Finland, last month, is keen to make amends after finishing ninth last weekend in a super-G in the Swiss resort of St. Moritz.
"I was very disappointed last week," she said. "I really had some bad racing conditions."
Lindsey Vonn, meanwhile, went off course in her run and finished 48th, having been 18th in Wednesday's training.
In Friday's downhill, Vonn will seek to extend her perfect record of four straight wins in speed races this season. The American is third in the overall standings led by Tina Maze of Slovenia, who was seventh in Thursday's training.
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