The famous Austrian Alpine skiing venue, hosting this sport for the first time, witnessed an early surprise as Spain’s recently-installed world champion, Oriol Cardona Coll, failed to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Harrop took full advantage to earn her fourth World Cup win of the season with a virtually faultless display, with Marianne Fatton of Switzerland finishing second and Italy’s Giulia Murada, the overall women’s World Cup points leader, third.

"I'm happy because it's true that I wanted to have a good comeback after the World Championships as I was a bit disappointed," said Harrop, who now has nine career World Cup wins.

"Still, I won two gold medals there, but today I wanted to boost my confidence. 

"I did well, so I'm satisfied with today's race."

Murada leads the standings with 23 points from Célia Perillat-Pessey of France, who was sixth today.

Yesterday evening Lietha had said during the Opening Ceremony that he planned to sing the Swiss national anthem after the sprint race.

He was as good as his word, although his victory was clouded by the bad luck suffered by his compatriot Matteo Favre, who appeared to be in a winning position until an accidental collision in the final transition almost caused him to lose one of his poles, and he dropped from first to fourth.

Lietha, who had controlled all his previous races in impeccable fashion, maintained form to win ahead of French racers Thibault Anselmet and Robin Galindo.

"I feel very happy, but at the same time, I'm disappointed for my teammate Matteo Favre,” Lietha said.

"He was the strongest but made a mistake on the top transition.

"But that's the sprint - one mistake can cost you so much. 

"Today, luck was on my side. 

"At the World Championships, it was the opposite."

Lietha now leads the men’s standings in the Sprint World Cup by 96 points ahead of Iwan Arnold of Switzerland.

With just four races to go, Anselmet has a huge lead in the overall men's World Cup standings from Maximilien Drion du Chaopis of Belgium, who is 166 points back.

Third-placed Robert Antonioli is 229 points behind Anselme.

The action in Schladming is due to continue tomorrow with the vertical races.

The start takes place in Planai Stadium, and the course leads to the middle station of the cable car.

The course is 2.2 kilometres long with 615 metres of elevation.