MÉRIBEL, (AFP) –
Germany’s Alexander Schmid and Norway’s Maria Therese Tviberg claimed golds in the men and women’s individual parallel events at the World Ski Championships on Wednesday.
After eight rapid-fire runs down the Roc de Fer piste in a knockout format, Schmid beat Austrian Dominik Raschner over two legs in the final by 0.50 seconds.
Tviberg, a silver medallist with her country’s quartet in Tuesday’s mixed-sex parallel team event, was faster than Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener by 0.67sec over their two final runs in warm, sunny conditions.
It was Holdener’s second individual medal of these worlds after she also claimed silver in last week’s alpine combined event.
Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund, Tviberg’s teammate in Tuesday’s action, claimed bronze in a race-off against France’s Marie Lamure.
The bronze in the men’s event also went to a Norwegian, in the shape of Timon Haugen, who got the better of Austrian Adrian Pertl.
French hopes of a medal in the men’s event suffered a first blow when defending champion Mathieu Faivre failed to negotiate qualification, a fate that also befell Olympic champion Clement Noel.
Alexis Pinturault, seeking a third medal on home snow after his combined gold and super-G bronze, was knocked out of the first round by Norway’s two-time junior world gold medallist Alexander Steen Olsen.