With action returning to the former Olympic track after a six-year absence, it also brought a return to the top spot of the podium for the Italian in the men's singles.

Fischnaller's last victory came in Sochi last year during a sprint race, but his last long-race win was in Lillehammer during the 2019-2020 season.

This time around, Fischnaller trailed Loch marginally after the first run, but pulled out more than two-tenths of a second over him on run two to take the gold.

His winning combined time was 1min 30.068sec to finish ahead of Loch's 1:30.253.

It is Fischnaller's eighth career FIL World Cup victory.

Austrian David Gleirscher, the brother of double Innsbruck winner Nico, took the bronze in 1:30.272.

Italy were victorious again for a second women's doubles race in a row, with Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer recording a winning time of 1:28.302.

Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal of Germany were second, followed by Canadians Caitlin Nash and Natalie Corless for bronze.

Germany were top of the podium in the men's doubles thanks to the efforts of Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken.

The pair put in a superior second run to pip Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf of Austria with a time of 1:26.789 to their opponents' total of 1:26.822.

Triple Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, also from Germany, were the bronze medallists just 0.045sec off the Austrians.