San Francisco Frontiers - Vinatzer leads Italy to world mixed team parallel gold

The Italian quartet of Giorgia Collomb, Lara Della Mea, Filippo Della Vite and Vinatzer saw off Ukraine, France and Sweden in fast-paced knock-out rounds before overcoming Switzerland in the final.

Wendy Holdener, a two-time world champion in combined and a five-time Olympic medallist, had been expected to get past Giorgia Collomb in the first run, but the Swiss veteran made a mistake halfway down and eventually came through the line 0.60sec down on the Italian.

Luca Aerni then swept past Italy's Filippo Della Vite by 0.29sec to bring Switzerland back on equal footing before Delphine Darbellay made it 2-1 to the Swiss, finishing 1.55sec ahead of Lara Della Mea.

That left Thomas Tumler, who had set the fastest descent of the day (24.06sec) in the quarter-finals, against Vinatzer in a straight shoot-out.

But Tumler, a 35-year-old who secured his first ever win after 13 seasons on the World Cup circuit in the giant slalom in Beaver Creek giant slalom in December and had muscled Switzerland past Germany and the United States en route to the final, had a terrible start.

Vinatzer grabbed the advantage and never relented, shooting through the line in 24.48sec, 0.61sec ahead of Tumler in front of a baying crowd of 13,500 at the bottom of the Schneekristall course on the Zwolferkogel mountain.

That gave the Italian foursome a 0.45sec winning cushion over the Swiss team.

"It's a good start, the level is very high," said Italy coach Max Carca.

The Swedish team comprising Sara Hector, Estelle Alphand, Fabian Ax Swartz and Kristoffer Jakobsen beat the United States, the reigning champions, for bronze after American Isaiah Nelson skied out of the final race.

O.Green--SFF