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| - Marta Bassino claimed Italy's first gold medal of the world ski championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo on Tuesday, tying with Austrian Katharina Liensberger in the final of the women's parallel giant slalom. Bassino saw off the challenges of Slovenian Meta Hrovat, teammate Federica Brignone and France's Tessa Worley in the semi-final in a series of quickfire races based on two legs per round. The medal contenders each skied eight runs on the Rumerlo piste in an action-packed display in the debut of the event at a world championships. The 24-year-old Italian was pitched against Liensberger -- victor over Briton Alex Tilley, Poland's Maryna Gasienica-Daniel and American Paula Moltzan -- in the final. The Austria gained a 0.50sec lead in the first run, but Bassino battled back to leave the times tied for a dramatic joint gold to send partisan onlookers, drastically reduced in number because of Covid-19 restrictions, into raptures. Liensberger was pleased with her shared gold, the fourth for the Austrian team in just eight events, which was awarded after a little confusion. "I'm so happy for the gold medal, it's just brilliant," she said. "Winning a gold medal is really something special. It is a dream that came true today. That we can be equal first with Marta, that makes me very happy." France's two-time world champion Worley claimed bronze after beating Moltzan, a surprise winner over Swiss favourite Wendy Holdener in the quarter-finals, in the third-place ski-off. Worley's teammate Mathieu Faivre won the men's title, seeing off Croat Filip Zubcic in the final. Faivre's path to the final saw him dispatch Finland's Samu Torsti, Austrian Fabio Gstrein and Germany's Alex Schmid. Switzerland's Loic Meillard followed up on his alpine combined bronze with another third-place finish after Schmid slid out on the second run of their duel. "I really enjoyed myself today," said Faivre, who has just one victory on the World Cup circuit, a giant slalom in Val d'Isere in 2016. "It's a discipline that more 'fun' that's nice to do. It had difficulty finding its place in the World Cup schedule and there are still different rules, particularly in qualifying. "This is our first World Championship parallel and I certainly am the first world champion." Hot favourites Marco Schwarz of Austria and Slovakia's Petra Vlhova both failed to qualify for the finals. Schwarz won gold in the men's alpine combined on Monday and Vlhova silver in the women's, but neither made the cut. Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami, chasing a third medal at these worlds after winning super-G gold and downhill bronze, was another big-name absentee from the final after she failed to make the top 16 times. American Mikaela Shiffrin, whose combined victory on Monday made her the most decorated US alpine skier in history, with nine medals including an American record of six golds, opted to skip the parallel GS in order to concentrate on Thursday's giant slalom proper and Saturday's slalom. France's Alexis Pinturault and Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen, who are among the big favourites in the men's technical events, also chose not to race in the inaugural world parallels. lp/pb
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