In the final trial before the Games are due to get underway on March 7, both Frantceva and Medvedeva claimed victories in the downhill races on the opening day of the World Cup finals in Tarvisio, Italy.

Frantceva and guide Pavel Zabotin, winners of three world titles last year, were the skiers to beat in the women's visually impaired class.

The pair did not disappoint this time round, edging past American rivals Danelle Umstead and husband guide Rob, in the first race of the day, while Australia's Melissa Perrine and guide Andrew Bor were third.

The second race saw a similar result with the 26-year-old again beating the Americans into second.

It was much the same for Mededeva in the women's standing event as she twice topped the podium, with America's Allison Jones and Italy's Melania Corradini finishing second and third respectively.

Inga Medvedeva topped off a great start to the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup finals for Russia with wins in both of her women's standing downhill events ©Getty Images



It was not all one way traffic for the Russians as Austria's athletes were also clocking up the wins on the slopes of Italy.

Markus Salcher won both men's standing races ahead of his team-mate Matthias Lanzinger, with Australia's Toby Kane claiming third in the first race, a position occupied by Russia's Alexey Bugaev in the second.

Not to be outdone, Salcher's team-mate Claudia Loesch also claimed victories in the two women's sitting events, finishing ahead of American skier Laurie Stephens each time.

Japan's Akira Kano was also in resilient form in the men's sitting race as he claimed victory in each of the two races on day one.

The first of the two races saw America's Christopher Devlin-Young and Austria's Reinhold Sample secure second and third on the podium, while a tantalising second race saw the three podium finishers, Kane, Canada's Caleb Brousseau and Devlin-Young, separated by just 0.19sec.

On his long awaited return from a serious Achilles injury, Spain's Jon Santacana, guided by Miguel Galindo, will be pleased with his two third-place finishes in the men's visually impaired.

Both races were won by America's Mark Bathum, guided by Cade Yamamoto, while Italy's Alesssandro Daldoss, guided by Luca Negrini, was second.

All the remaining races in Tarvisio will now conclude on Friday (February 28) due to a poor weather forecast for Thursday.

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