New Zealand's Alice Robinson dominated the giant slalom at he FIS World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships today to win the gold medal at the FIS World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships ©Getty Images

New Zealand’s Alice Robinson has claimed the first gold medal of the 2019 International Ski Federation World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships with victory in the women’s giant slalom in Val Di Fassa.

The 17-year-old, who finished 17th at the senior World Championships in Åre last Thursday (February 14), triumphed at the junior event in a combined time of 1min 54.99sec after two runs.

In a dominant performance the Kiwi skier set the fastest time in both the first and second run, eventually finishing more than a second ahead of her nearest challenger.

Austria's defending champion Julia Scheib could only finish fifth ©Getty Images
Austria's defending champion Julia Scheib could only finish fifth ©Getty Images

Switzerland’s 2017 world junior slalom champion Camile Rast sealed the silver medal with an overall time of 1:56.05 and Norway’s 19-year-old Kaja Norbye took the bronze medal in 1:56.15.

Last year’s champion Julia Scheib from Austria could only finish fifth this time out, with an overall time of 1:56.46, 1.47 seconds slower than Robinson.

Tomorrow the Championships are due  continue with the women’s slalom, won last year by Slovenia’s Meta Hrovat.