Oskar Kwiatkowski and Miki Tsubaki claim parallel giant slalom world titles
Pole Kwiatkowski defeated Dario Caviezel to take men's gold after Daniela Ulbing fell to hand Miki the women's crown.
Oskar Kwiatkowski completed a day to remember for Poland by taking the snowboard parallel giant slalom world title at Bakuriani, Georgia on Sunday (19 February).
The 26-year-old from Zakopane crossed the finish line 0.26 ahead of Swiss rider Dario Caviezel to clinch his nation's first alpine snowboard World Championship gold medal.
Kwiatkowski came into this event in excellent form having claimed his first two World Cup victories last month.
He qualified second for the last 16, and put out reigning Olympic champion Benjamin Karl in the semi-finals.
Karl just missed out on the podium, beaten by Austrian team-mate Alexander Payer by five-hundredths of a second in the small final.
Earlier, Japanese teenager Miki Tsubaki sprung something of a surprise to take the women's title.
The 19-year-old was handed victory when 2017 slalom world champion Daniela Ulbing fell just after the midway point in the big final.
The Austrian, who took Olympic silver behind Ester Ledecka at Beijing 2022, was already behind after making a serious error on the top half of the course.
Two-time Olympic gold medallist Ledecka sits out of the competition due to a collarbone injury.
Miki's only World Cup win came in slalom last March in Piancavallo, Italy, and she will be full of confidence going into the slalom event on Tuesday.
Aleksandra Krol beat Lucia Dalmasso of Italy in the small final to take the bronze.
That was Poland's first medal at the alpine snowboard World Championships with Kwiatkowski soon making it two.