10:30 | Bon di from Val Gardena!

10:31 | In quarter of an hour the first training run will start on the Saslong. The original start time has been brought forward to 10.45.

10:32 | We will inform you live on the race starting at 12:00 noon.

10:35 | Unfortunately the weathermen were right as it is snowing lightly at the moment - at least in the finish area. But the sky looks promising: the clouds seem to be breaking up!

10:36 | The first forerunner is on the piste.

10:37 | The start has been postponed slightly as a fog bank has been building up.

10:48 | Peter Fill has started the training run with a 5 minute delay. The fog doesn't seem to be a problem anymore.

10:49 | Peter fill is local, but the Saslong is actually not his favourite piste. He loves difficult courses but the Saslong requires excellent gliding.

10:50 | Fill has reached the finish area in 2:05.95 minutes.

10:51 | Now it's Stephan Keppler's turn. The German is known to Gardena fans: Last year he achieved a sensational second place.

10:52 | Keppler was faster than Fill in the upper part of the course, but reached the finish area 0,25 seconds behind.

10:53 | The Swiss Mar Gisin is a lot faster than the previous two racers.
10:54 | Even in the finish area he is half a second faster than Keppler and a second faster than Fill.

10:55 | The first Austrian has started his training run: Joachim Puchner.

10:56 | Joachim Puchner clocks the fastest time. He is one second ahead of Gisin.

10:59 | The weather doesn't seem to be causing any problems at the moment. It is still cloudy but the fog has cleared up.

11:00 | The next South Tyrolean is on the piste: Werner Heel.

11:01 | Heel has already won a Super G here.

11:02 | Heel is fast at the top. He is keeping up with Puchner.

11:03 | Heel loses a bit towards the finish and is third.

11:04 | The visibilty - at least according to the images on the TV - is getting worse again.

11:05 | Up until now all skiers have raced down the Salsong without any problems, but now Andrej Sporn from Slovenia seems to be in trouble.

11:06 | That's why Sporn reaches the finish line more than two seconds back.

11:07 | Even Didier Defago cannot compete with the best. Like Sporn he is about two seconds behind.

11:07 | Johan Clarey from France, however, is going like the clappers.

11:07 | But he falls coming out of the Ciaslat.

11:08 | It seems his ski hit one of the treacherous bumps. But he is standing again.

11:09 | Bad luck for Klaus Kröll who started after Clarey but had to stop his run.

11:11 | The training continues. Klaus Kröll has to continue from where he was stopped.

11:11 | This was decided yesterday at the Team Captain Meeting in order to ensure that the training could be completed as fast as possible due to unstable weather conditions.

11:12 | Now one of the favourites is on: Erik Guay. The downhill world champion always does well here in Val Gardena.

11:12 | Today he is taking it easy, however. He is behind by almost 2.5 seconds when reaching the finish area.

11:14 | But not Beat Fuez, the current leader in the Downhill World Cup.

11:17 | The man in the red tricot is taking it easy today, too. He is exactly 2.5 seconds behind Joachim Puchner.

11:17 | Now Romed Baumann. The Austrian is really fast.

11:18 | And Baumann also kicks out Puchner. Baumann leads.

11:18 | Now the top contenders are on. Carlo Janka is the first of the downhill stars to go.

11:19 | But Janka is not one of the fastest today. 14th place for him today.

11:20 | Now a racer who after one year wants to celebrate his comeback in the World Cup: Mario Scheiber.

11:20 | The Austrian, after a year of bad luck, places himself in the 5th position. Not bad. He is someone who will have to be reckoned with. He has been second here before.

11:21 | Now Christoph Innerhofer. The South Tyrolean regularly wins the fan club prize, but the Saslong is not his favourite piste at all.

11:21 | He is 1.5 seconds back.

11:22 | But now a man who is always up for a win: The Swiss oldie Didier Cuche.

11:23 | Yesterday he was voted the Swiss sportsman of the year!

11:24 | Cuche is 0.17 second behind Romed Baumann in second place.

11:25 | Spectacular! Bode Miller! The American jumps over the Camel Humps like no other skier up until now. Miller is fast and is in the lead in the interim times.

11:26 | In the finish area he is as fast as the leading Baumann.

11:26 | But watch out, the next big is on, Aksel Lund Svindal.

11:26 | But Svindal is not as fast as his rivals and is 0.37 seconds behind.

11:27 | Silvan Zurbriggen, last year's winner, is on the piste now. You can see light fog in the upper part of his run.

11:27 | Zurbriggen is 1.63 seconds back at the finish line.

11:27 | The strongest skiers gave it their all and were very fast.

11:28 | Probably they were all afraid of the bad weather forecast which could cause the cancellation of the second training run at any time.

11:29 | Nobody wants to go into the race on Saturday with merely a safe run and that's why they all tested the piste.

11:30 | A look at the standings makes it clear: In Val Gardena the bigs will dominate. Only the youngster Joachim Puchner was able to ski into the top group.

11:32 | Watch out now: Hans Olsson.

11:32 | Wow! The Scandinavian is leading in the upper part!

11:37 | And Olsson is also first in the finish area. He is 0.35 seconds ahead of Miller and Baumann.

11:38 | It has started snowing lightly again in the finish area.

11:44 | All the bigs have reached the finish area now.

11:44 | Val Gardena will once again be an exciting race. Already in the first training run the time spans between the racers are very close. The first eight racers are divided by a second.

12:14 | The fog forced the training to be interrupted.

12:14 | 46 of the 79 skiers have already arrived in the finish area. The Organizing Committee is waiting for the clouds to move away so that the training can be continued.

12:59 | After a break of one hour the training run continues.

13:46 | Another 13 racers to go. The clouds are slowly breaking up.

13:46 | It seems that everyone will be able to finish their training in acceptable conditions.

13:48 | An old friend is on the piste: Patrick Staudacher.

13:48 | But Staudacher doesn't reach the finish line.

13:51 | Another interval due to fog. It is the third in today's training.

13:53 | All good things come in threes: The third fog interval was the shortest and the training can resume.

14:01 | The last four racers are at the start gate but the training has been interrupted again. This time, however, it's not the fog, but the wind that is causing problems.

14:26 | FIS Race Director Günter Hujara has just announced that the three racers who are still at the start gate, can continue from the Super G start because it is too windy at the top.

14:30 | Georgi Georgiev from Bulgaria is the first of the three remaining skiers to hit the piste. He is skiing very slowly up to the Sochers wall.

14:57 | After possibly record breaking four hours, the first training run on the Saslong has just come to an end.

14:57 | We are saying goodbye for today and hope that the training tomorrow can take place in nice weather conditions. We from www.saslong.org will be there live from 12 noon and will commentate the second training run for the Live Newsticker. See you tomorrow, assudei!