(Reuters) – An inexperienced Switzerland side beat Olympic champions Austria 3-1 in the final to win the alpine skiing mixed team parallel event in Meribel, France on Friday.
Fadri Janutin defeated Patrick Feurstein by 0.26 seconds to give Switzerland the decisive point in a 3-1 victory over Austria, who won gold at the Beijing Winter Games in February.
Livio Simonet, who set the fastest men’s time of the event with a run of 21.95 in the semi-final, got the better of Stefan Brennsteiner.
The 22-year-old Janutin had competed in only two World Cup races prior to Friday’s final, while Simonet had three races under his belt, all of which he had failed to finish.
Andrea Ellenberger beat Katharina Truppe and Ricarda Haaser gave Austria their only point in the women’s runs by finishing ahead of Delphine Darbellay, 19, who was competing in her first World Cup race.
Germany beat Norway in the small final to finish third.
The format featured four races — two men’s and two women’s — with the contests decided by the combined best two times of each team if the score finished level.
The men’s giant slalom and women’s slalom will take place on Saturday.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
