The home nation secured gold medals in both the men's and women's ski mountaineering event at Chamonix, with 2013 World Championship bronze medallist Alexis Sévennec, and multiple world and European champion Laëtitia Roux (pictured top) claiming the titles respectively.

Sévennec, 25, was joined on the podium in joint first place by Italian two-time world champion Matteo Eydallin as both finished in 1 hour 15 minutes and 37.5 seconds, while Robert Antonioli, also of Italy, took third place in 1:16:47.8.

Roux finished the women's race in 1:27:52.0 ahead of Italy's Gloriana Pellissier who came second in 1:31:56.6 and home athlete Valentine Fabre, who took bronze in 1:38:23.6.

"I had a very good feeling this morning," Roux told insidethegames.

"I raced in the Pierra Menta two days ago so I was a little bit scared about my shape but this morning I felt good and I had a good start.

"I was in first place and it was quite easy to control the race after.

"It was a nice race and I'm very happy.

"It's an incredible event to be part of, it's a really good organisation [CISM], it's amazing."


Meanwhile, the unstoppable French duo of Anouk Faivre-Picon and Célia Aymonier, who are both in training for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, gave it their all to take the title in the women's nordic skiing team sprint event in a time of 18:28.93 in Le Grand Bornand.

Russian pair Natalja Iljina and Svetlana Nikolaeva followed the home winners to the podium in 18:30.19 ahead of Kazakhstan's Marina Matrossova and Elena Kolomina, who finished with bronze in 18:38.42.

Speaking to insidethegames, Faivre-Picon said they were enjoying the home advantage.

"We have twice as much strength by being at home," she explained.

"For the end of the season it is great for us to finish with such a great result and it brings us good spirits for the future and gives us strength to train for the next season."

The men's race in the discipline delivered something of a shock as Olympic gold medallist and the current 30 kilometres pursuit world champion Dario Cologna was disqualified for allegedly not touching in with his relay partner Curdin Perl, making way for his brother, Gianluca Cologna, to win the race with Jonas Baumann.


The Swiss pair took the gold medal in 16:11.84, ahead of Austria's Max Hauke and Bernhard Tritscher in second with 16:12.32, and Martin Jakš and Dušan Kožíšek of the Czech Republic who finished in 16:12.69 to claim third place.

"It would be very nice to compete with my brother, he is my hero," Gianluca said.

"Maybe Dario watched me but I couldn't see.

"I was very surprised that there were so many people here to see us.

"It was nice."

The 2013 CISM Winter World Games continue tomorrow with the giant slalom, ski orienteering, biathlon, indoor climbing and short track speed skating events.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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