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Franzoni sets pace in Olympic team combined / Photo: © AFP
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Franzoni sets pace in Olympic team combined
In-form Italian speedster Giovanni Franzoni set up teammate Alex Vinatzer with a shot at Olympic gold after setting the fastest time in the opening downhill of the men's team combined event on Monday.
The team combined event, which is making its Olympic debut at the Milan-Cortina Games, comprises two racers from the same nation racing a downhill and a slalom, with the fastest aggregate time earning the gold medal.
Franzoni, fresh from winning a silver medal in the individual downhill behind Switzerland's Franjo von Allmen on Saturday, clocked 1min 51.80sec down the Stelvio course in Bormio.
Vinatzer will race in the slalom, slated to start at 1300 GMT, aiming to put to good use the 0.17sec advantage Franzoni managed over Switzerland's Alexis Monney.
Monney was second fastest down, with Marco Odermatt representing the first Swiss team, along with world slalom champion Loic Meillard, sitting in third, 0.28sec further behind.
Newly-crowned Olympic downhill champion Von Allmen partnered up with Meillard to claim combined gold at last year's world championships in Saalbach, but his partner on Monday is Tanguy Nef.
Von Allmen sat fourth fastest, at 0.42sec, with just two other racers within one second of Franzoni's time: Italy Dominik Paris (+0.59) and France's Nils Allegre (+0.99).
Austria's Vincent Kriechmayr was seventh fastest down the testing Stelvio course, ahead of three other Austrians.
Countries are allowed to enter multiple teams: skiing powerhouses Switzerland, Italy and Austria each had four teams entered on Monday, while France had three. Just nine countries are represented
S. Sokolow--BTZ
