The 38-year-old, who won the event in 2014 and also has two third-place finishes in both the downhill and super-G, clocked a time of 1min 57.41sec on the legendary Streif course.

It was only three years ago that Reichelt suffered a season-ending injury on the hill and criticised the icy course conditions. 

He is now looking ahead to the main event, which following a late re-shuffle to the race schedule is due to take place tomorrow.

"It was important for my self-confidence as my last few downhills have not been great," Reichelt, the 2015 world super-G champion, was reported as saying by AFP.

"Naturally, I would gladly repeat my training performance."

Italy's Matteo Marsaglia finished second today, 0.23 seconds behind.

Compatriot Dominik Paris, the winner in Kitzbühel in 2013 and 2017, came third with 0.36 seconds separating him and Reichelt.

Switzerland's Beat Feuz, who currently tops the World Cup downhill standings, was three seconds off the pace in 32nd place.

Also set to be held this weekend is a slalom event on Saturday (January 26), with Marcel Hirscher aiming for victory in front of a home crowd, and a super-G event on Sunday (January 27). 

Today also saw the first downhill training run take place at the women's FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany.

Switzerland's Corinne Suter clocked the quickest time, completing the Kandahar course in 1:40.00.

Nearest challenger Lisa Hoernblad of Sweden finished 0.69 seconds behind, while third-placed Tamara Tippler of Austria was 1.09 seconds back.

Austria's Nicole Schmidhofer, the leader of the World Cup downhill standings, ended 1.59 seconds off the pace in 10th spot.

The United States' Lindsey Vonn did not start, but has not ruled out competing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Vonn announced on Sunday (January 20) that she may bring her retirement forward due to pain in her knees.

This came after the three-time Olympic medallist failed to finish the super-G event in Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy having run off the course.

The 34-year old told reporters that the event may have been her last World Cup race. 

She was initially considering retirement in December but said calling time on her career could come even sooner.

Another training session is scheduled for tomorrow before the downhill event on Saturday and the super-G event on Sunday.