Arthur Bauchet won the first of three men's standing giant slalom races today at the La Molina World Cup ©Getty Images

France's Arthur Bauchet got off to a winning start today at the World Para Alpine Skiing World Cup in La Molina, triumphing in the first of three men's standing giant slalom contests.

The 18-year-old, who is the reigning world champion in the event, has been tipped to win every race at the meeting and has now taken the first step towards doing so, winning today in the Spanish resort in a time of 1min 32.98sec after two runs.

That effort saw him beat the reigning Paralympic champion Theo Gmur from Switzerland by 1.41 seconds, while the United States' Thomas Walsh came third in 1:35.75.

Two further giant slalom races will go ahead tomorrow and on Thursday (March 14) before slalom events take place on Friday (March 15) and Saturday (March 16).

Elsewhere today the results also went largely as expected.

In the women's standing class Bauchet's compatriot Marie Bochet won her race in 1:42.50.

The 25-year-old won gold in every discipline at January's World Para Alpine Skiing Championships across Italy and Slovenia and so, like Bauchet, is tipped to win every race in La Molina.

She won today's contest by more than five seconds in front of Canada's Frederique Turgeon and Germany's Anna-Maria Rieder, who finished in 1:49.77.

The women's sitting contest also went as expected as reigning world champion Momoka Muraoka from Japan finished first in 1:47.89.

In a battle of world champions, the slalom gold medallist Anna-Lena Forster from Germany finished second in 1:53.32, while Laurie Stephens from the US claimed bronze in 1:59.69.

In the women's visually impaired class Australia's reigning super combined world champion Melissa Perrine beat her only competitor, Great Britain's Menna Fitzpatrick, to take the win in 1:49.87. 

The men's visually impaired contest saw France gain their third win of the day through Hyacinthe Deleplace.

He finished in 1:44.36, beating Slovakia's Marek Kubacka and another Frenchman, Thomas Civade.

In the men's sitting race there was a surprise as Jeroen Kampschreur from The Netherlands, who like Bochet won all five golds at the World Championships, could only finish third.

Experiencing a drop in his usually supreme form, he was beaten by both Japan's Taiki Morii and another Dutchman Niels de Langen.

Morii, who has not won a major championship title since 2013, tasted victory once again in a time of 1:39.40.

De Langen came second in 1:42.47, with Kampschreur settling for bronze in 1:42.84.