Alpine skiing-Bassino, Faivre win parallel golds for Italy and France

The silver was Croatia's first of the championships while Meillard's medal was his second after bronze in Monday's Combined. Slovakia's World Cup overall leader Petra Vlhova failed to qualify for the women's final, a day after winning silver in the Combined.


Reuters | Updated: 16-02-2021 21:35 IST | Created: 16-02-2021 21:35 IST
Alpine skiing-Bassino, Faivre win parallel golds for Italy and France

Italy's Marta Bassino shared women's parallel gold with Austrian Katharina Liensberger at the Alpine skiing world championships on Tuesday, as the hosts won their first medal since the competition began last Thursday.

Mathieu Faivre handed France a first gold of the 2021 championships in the men's event. The events, in which pairs of racers compete alongside each other over two runs down parallel giant slalom pistes, were being held for the first time at championship level.

Croatia's Filip Zubcic was the silver medallist in the men's event. The bronze medals went to France's Tessa Worley, who beat American Paula Moltzan in the battle for third, and Switzerland's Loic Meillard respectively.

Bassino had knocked compatriot Federica Brignone out of the reckoning in the quarter-finals and then saw off Worley in the semis for a shot at gold in the knowledge that at least a silver was safe. Cortina d'Ampezzo, a co-host of the 2026 Winter Olympics, had been a rough ride for the home skiers up to Tuesday with a succession of near-misses in speed events that had promised much more.

The gold seemed to have slipped away from Bassino after the buckle on her right boot appeared to come loose half way down her first run, leaving her with half a second -- the maximum penalty -- to make up in the second. She did just that, crossing the line with the times exactly level for a shared gold after some initial confusion about the winner.

Faivre was 0.23 quicker than Zubcic on his first run on the blue side and then made sure of the title after the switchover to red. The silver was Croatia's first of the championships while Meillard's medal was his second after bronze in Monday's Combined.

Slovakia's World Cup overall leader Petra Vlhova failed to qualify for the women's final, a day after winning silver in the Combined. Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami, gold medallist in super-G and second in the World Cup overall standings, also missed the cut.

Austria's Marco Schwarz was the big-name casualty of the men's event, also failing to qualify after winning Combined gold on Monday.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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