Italy's Marta Bassino overcame a hefty first-leg deficit to claim Italy's first gold medal of the world ski championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo on Tuesday, holding her nerve to win the women's parallel giant slalom. Bassino saw off the challenges of Slovenian Meta Hrovat, teammate Federica Brignone and France's Tessa Worley in the semi-final in a series of quickfire races based on two legs per round. The Italian was pitched against Austria's Katharina Liensberger in the final and overcame a 0.50sec deficit from the first run to send partisan onlookers, drastically reduced in number because of Covid-19 restrictions, into raptures. France's two-time world champion Worley claimed bronze after beating American Paula Moltzan, a surprise winner of Swiss favourite Wendy Holdener in the quarter-finals, in the third-place ski-off. Worley's teammate Mathieu Faivre won the men's title, seeing off Croat Filip Zubcic in the final. Switzerland's Loic Meillard followed up on his alpine combined bronze with another third-place finish after German opponent Alex Schmid slid out. Hot favourites Marco Schwarz of Austria and Slovakia's Petra Vlhova both failed to qualify for the finals. Schwarz won gold in the men's alpine combined on Tuesday and Vlhova silver in the women's, but neither made the cut. Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami, chasing a third medal at these worlds after winning super-G gold and downhill bronze, was another big-name absentee from the final after she failed to make the top 16 times. lp