The return was welcomed by four-time Sochi 2014 champion Marie Bochet as she stormed to victory in both of the women's standing races on home soil in Tignes, France.

German rival Andrea Rothfuss and Dutch skier Anna Jochemsen finished second and third respectively in both races.

The men's standing races saw world and Paralympic champion Austrian Markus Salcher also seal two wins.

A time of 1min 01.06sec in the opening event was enough to topple Switzerland's Thomas Pfyl and Russian Alexey Bugaev, while 1:01.41 saw Bugaev off again in the second, with France's Roman Riboud rounding off the podium in this race.

Austria's Claudia Loesch got one over her biggest rival and five-time Sochi 2014 champion Anna Schaffelhuber in the first of the women's sitting contests with her time of 1:05.46, just 0.34 ahead of the German.

The United States' reigning world champion Laurie Stephens was third.

Loesch's luck would not hold in the second race, however, as she failed to finish her run.

This paved the way for Schaffelhuber to take gold in 1:04.36, while Stephens collected silver.

Japan's Akira Kano claimed one of two victories in the men's sitting downhill event in Tignes ©Getty Images



Japanese three-time Paralympic gold medallist Akira Kano skied to victory in the men's equivalent, recording 1:01.27 in the first race to beat Switzerland's Christoph Kunz and US skier Christopher Devlin-Young.

France's Frederic Francois was on top in the second race as he led Kano and Austria's Roman Rabl into second and third respectively with his time of 1:01.81.

The results in the men's visually impaired races brought a positive tone to the hosts of next month's World Championships with Mac Marcoux and guide brother BJ edging to victory in 1:00.83.

Their time was just 0.17 seconds ahead of the US' Mark Bathum and guide Cade Yamamoto and only 1.23 in front Slovakian Miroslav Haraus, guided by Maros Hudik.

Bathum took victory in the second race however, beating Marcoux and Haraus with his time of 1:01.28.

Bathum's teammate Danelle Umstead won both the women's visually impaired races with husband guide Rob.

Races are due to continue in Tignes on tomorrow.

The schedule has been modified due to bad weather and two super-G events will now take place to round-off the competition.

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