The two-time World Championship silver medallist claimed the maximum 100 points available by winning the four-woman final, beating American rival Lindsey Jacobellis, the nine-times Winter X-Games champion, into second place.

Russia's Mariya Vasiltsova did enough to come home in third while the fourth snowboarder in the final, Canada's Zoe Bergermann, had to make do with finishing just outside of the podium places.

Meanwhile, the men's honours went to Alessandro Haemmerle of Austria, who came home ahead of his team-mate Markus Schairer.

This was Haemmerle's second World Cup victory of his career after he also captured the title at the Sochi 2014 test event in 2013.

There was another third placed finish for Russia as Nikolay Olyunin did enough to keep Cameron Bolton of Australia at bay.

Elsewhere, the Snowboarding Parallel Slalom World Cup also began in Carezza, Italy, with Bulgaria's Radoslav Yankov taking his first victory at this level - and the first for his country - after seeing off Russia's Andrey Sobolev in the final.

Switzerland took the bronze medal with their racer Nevin Galmarini beating Austrian Andreas Prommegger to the finish.

Czech snowboarder Ester Ledecká, the current world champion, began her World Cup season in style by getting the better of Switzerland's Ladina Jenny in the final.

Third spot went to Ekaterina Tudegesheva who saw off another Swiss, Julie Zogg.

Parallel Slalom has been removed as a Winter Olympic discipline ahead of Pyeongchang 2018, prompting American Justin Reiter to launch a legal case against the International Olympic Committee.

Reiter was 18th in the men's event in Carezza.

The International Ski Federation Snowboard Cross World Cup season will next head to Feldberg in Germany on January 23, with the parallel slalom action set to continue in Rogla, Slovenia, on the same date.



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