INTERNATIONAL: Sweden's Sandra Naeslund continued her winning run in the Ski Cross World Cup on Sunday with gold at the Innichen competition in Italy. Naeslund, who has now won four of the last five finals in the World Cup, came first in qualifying and dominated the final right from the start.

Sandra Naeslund extended her lead as the run went on to take the gold and bounce back from her fourth place finish at Arosa, Switzerland five days before.The battle for second was a tight one, with Switzerland's Fanny Smith finishing just 0.02 seconds ahead of Canada's Brittany Phelan. France's Marielle Berger-Sabbatel crashed in the semi-final so was not able to compete in the final.

Naeslund says, "I really like this course and I found in the qualification yesterday that I could ski fast so, I don't know, it's always tight when you do heats but I managed to ski really good and like I said before, always super-fast skis, so that helped a lot."

In the men's final it was also the top qualifier who took the victory. Switzerland's Ryan Regez took the lead at the start and stayed ahead to secure his first victory of the season, despite a late challenge from France's Bastien Midol.Midol finished second, Canada's Reece Howden came in third after a late trade of overtakes with Austria's Tristan Takats, who was fourth.

Regez says, "I feel amazing right now. I'm so happy that I could finally win a race again. It's been two years I think or even three. Just an amazing feeling to win the quali and actually win the race after. Amazing feeling. The course is so great to ski on, the snow is absolutely perfect and really pleased that I could just perform through all the heats."

The skiers will compete again at Innichen on Monday.Naeslund leads the women's overall World Cup standings, while Terence Tchiknavorian of France has the most points on the men's side.

^{PHOTO: HIGHLIGHTS OF WOMEN'S AND MEN'S FINAL 1 OF FIS SKI CROSS WORLD CUP COMPETITION AT INNICHEN, ITALY}