With the absence of Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish skiers due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was wide open in Switzerland.

Brennan was one of those favourites heading into Davos and duly delivered after an understated first two heats.

She first finished runner-up to Slovenia's Anamarija Lampič in her opening round, before relying on a fastest qualifier position behind Lampič and Switzerland's Nadine Fähndrich to make the final.

In that final, Brennan emerged with the gold, winning her first World Cup gold ahead of Lampič and Russia's Natalya Nepryayeva, with the top three separated by less than half a second.

Fähndrich was a close fourth, just 0.53 seconds behind Brennan; while the US' Sophie Caldwell Hamilton and Slovenia's Eva Urevc completed the final field in fifth and sixth.

Overall leaders Therese Johaug and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, both from Norway, were missing as were their sprint compatriots Erik Valnes and Sweden's Linn Svahn.

Later in the men's sprint, Pellegrino always looked like one of the favourites having won all three of his races.

He held off Russian Alexander Bolshunov and Britain's Andrew Young by a couple of seconds to ensure he would take gold.

Bolshunov and Young were also in the semi-final with the Italian, progressing through before taking the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Another Russian, Gleb Retivykh, was a distant fourth ahead of France's Richard Jouve and Switzerland's Valerio Grond, who completed the final field.