Russian athlete Voronchikhina, who is competing as a neutral, claimed her first major career victory in recording a total time of 2 minutes 15.19 secs across the two runs in Slovenia, beating Bochet, who won four gold medals at Sochi 2014, by an incredible 3.20 seconds.

Petra Smarzova, of Slovakia, completed the podium with a time of 2:27.27.

There were no such shocks in the men’s standing race with Voronchikhina's fellow neutral athlete Aleksei Bugaev living up to his pre-race favourite tag in winning his fourth World Cup event of the season thanks to a time of 2:08.22.

Switzerland’s Theo Gmur claimed silver with France’s Arthur Bauchet third.

Two-time World Champion Bauchet is yet to record a World Cup victory this season.

The favourite also took the title in the women’s sitting event with seven-time Paralympic medallist Claudia Lösch, of Austria, winning gold in a time of 2:27.93 ahead of Switzerland’s Stephani Victor and Australia’s Victoria Pendergast, who took silver and gold, respectively.

Norway’s Jesper Pedersen, who won three gold medals at the World Cup event in Kuhtai, Austria, earlier this season, won an incredibly tight race in the men’s sitting.

Pedersen recorded a time of 2:10.74 over two runs, beating Tyler Walker, who four years ago had to be airlifted to hospital after a bad crash at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics, by just 0.19 seconds.

Roman Rabl claimed the final spot on the podium in a time of 2:12.96.

Slovak athletes dominated the visually impaired races with Henrieta Farkašová, who has five Paralympic gold medals to her name, taking the title in the women’s event in a time of 2:14.71, 23.79 seconds ahead of South Korea’s Yang Jae Rim, while 29-year-old Marek Kubacka won gold in the men’s in 2:05.52.

Kubacka’s fellow Slovak Jakub Krako and Spaniard Yon Maiztegui Santacana completed the podium line-up in the men’s by taking silver and gold, respectively.

The event continues tomorrow.