Sangho Lee, right, and Sofiya Nadyrshina won the first World Cups of the season when they won the parallel giant slalom races at Lake Bannoye ©FIS

Sangho Lee of South Korea and Sofiya Nadyrshina of Russia won the first International Ski Federation Alpine Snowboard World Cups of the 2022 season when they triumphed in the parallel giant slalom discipline at Lake Bannoye in Russia.

Lee’s maiden World Cup triumph came in the men's big final when his opponent, Stefan Baumeister of Germany, crashed out with four gates remaining.

The final podium place went to Andrei Sobolev of Russia, who won the small final after defeating Mirko Felicetti of Italy.

Pre-race favourite Dmitrii Loginov of Russia went out at the quarter-final stage when he did not finish after missing a gate.

In the women’s parallel giant slalom event, the big final pitted Sofiya Nadyrshina of Russia against Ramona Theresa Hofmeister of Germany.

The pair were the top two parallel giant slalom racers last season, but on this occasion Crystal Globe winner Hofmeister stumbled on a turn and was forced to put both hands on the snow, allowing Nadyrshina to triumph by 0.9sec.

In the small final, victory went to Germany’s Carolin Langenhorst, who was victorious by 0.03sec to earn her first World Cup podium in the discipline since 2017, as she overcame Julia Dujmovits of Austria.

Action is scheduled to continue tomorrow in Lake Bannoye with women’s and men’s parallel slalom races.