Alpine skiing World Cup finals 2023: Norway edge out Switzerland in closely-fought team event

Norway edged out Switzerland in the mixed team parallel event at the World Cup finals in Soldeu on Friday.

A closely-fought final was level at 1-1 as Thea Louise Stjernesund won her head-to-head for Norway and Livio Simonet took his heat for Austria.

Andrea Ellenberger stunned Therese Maria Tviberg in the third heat, which left Timon Haugan needing to win, with a fast time.

Haugan, who was a bronze medallist at the World Championships individual parallel event, beat Semyel Bissig and was fast enough to give Norway the victory.

Just six teams took part in the team event, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Italy, Germany, Andorra, as most nations decided to rest their skiers.

Switzerland and Austria automatically qualified for the semi-finals as they are the top two countries in the Nations Cup standings.

Germany get the better of Italy 3-1 in the quarter-finals, as Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone and Corrado Barbera lost their heats.

Meanwhile, Norway whitewashed Andorra 4-0 in the other quarter-final with Stjernesund, Haugan, Tviberg and Rasmus Windingstad all winning their head-to-heads.

In the semi-finals, a tightly fought battle between Switzerland and Germany was decided on the time tie-breaker.

If the scores are level after the four runs in the team event, the team with the fastest combined male and female time go through.

Linus Strasser won the fourth head to make it 2-2, but didn’t set a quick enough time as Switzerland edged out Germany by 0.21 seconds.

Norway continued to impress by beating Austria 3-1 and went on to beat Switzerland by virtue of a tie-break in the final.

At the weekend, record-breaker Mikaela Shiffrin will be back in action in the women’s slalom on Saturday and the giant slalom on Sunday.

The men’s technical events will also take place, with their giant slalom on Saturday and Dave Ryding will lead Great Britain’s charge in the slalom on Sunday.

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