Snowboarders Su, Gasser triumph in big air at Beijing, Brignone wins giant slalom at Mont Tremblant

China's snowboard sensation Su Yiming and veteran Anna Gasser of Austria secured victories in their respective men's and women's big air at the FIS World Cup in Beijing on Saturday, repeating their triumphs from the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games.

"My dream started here. I am really happy and grateful to come back and show myself in front of the audience," said the 19-year-old Su, who ranked first in the qualification round on Friday and maintained the momentum in the final at Shougang.

With a stunning 1800 and 1980 performance respectively in the first two runs, Su clinched the win early with 184.50 points and felt at ease in the third run to savor the competition. Japanese snowboarder Ryoma Kimata earned the silver with 180.75 points, while his compatriot Kira Kimura claimed the bronze.

Gasser, who defended her women's snowboard big air Olympic title at the Beijing 2022, once again ascended to the event's highest podium with 174 points in the FIS World Cup.

"I had some mistakes in my first run. My second one is not as good as I normally can do it. I didn't just compete for the points, but for the best performances," Gasser said after the competition.

Australia's Tess Coady placed second in the women's snowboard big air, closely followed by Miyabi Onitsuka of Japan.

In the men's freeski big air, Alexander Hall of the United States accumulated 182 points to claim the gold, outscoring the runner-up Edouard Therriault of Canada by only 0.25 points. Switzerland's Andri Ragettli edged out Italy's Miro Tabanelli by the same margin to seize the bronze.

Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland earned the women's freeski big air gold with 175.50 points, sharing the podium with British Kirsty Muir and Italy's Flora Tabanelli. China's Liu Mengting made her debut in the World Cup final and finished in seventh.

"I still have much to learn on the international stage, but I feel delighted to perform the tricks I prepared for the World Cup. Now, the Big Air Shougang is also where I started my dream," Liu noted.

Elsewhere, Italy's Federica Brignone became the oldest woman to win a World Cup giant slalom event with her triumph on Saturday at Mont Tremblant, Quebec where Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami was unable to extend her perfect start to the season in the discipline.

Olympic silver medallist Brignone, who finished sixth in the giant slalom last week at Killington, led after the first run and went on to win by 21 hundredths of a second over Petra Vlhova with a total time of two minutes 14.95 seconds.

With her win, the 33-year-old Italian surpassed the record set by Austria's Anita Wachter, who was 32 years and 319 days old when she won the World Cup giant slalom event at Lienz in December 1999.

Mikaela Shiffrin, who won the slalom event at Killington in Vermont last week for a record-extending 90th World Cup win, finished third, 29 hundredths of a second back of Brignone.

Gut-Behrami arrived at Mont Tremblant looking to become the first female skier to win each of the opening three World Cup giant slalom events from the start of a season since Slovenian Tina Maze won the first four in 2012-13.

Gut-Behrami was third fastest after Saturday' first run but was unable to secure another win as she finished 59 hundredths of a second back of Brignone and in fifth place.

(With input from agencies)