Karl won gold in the parallel giant slalom event in Carezza after beating defending overall champion Radoslav Yankov in the semi-final by 0.07secs, before seeing off Russian boarder Andrey Sobolev in the final.

His victory was the 31-year-old’s first in World Cup competition since 2011, a success which came on the same course.

Meanwhile, in the corresponding women’s competition, Meschik got the better of the Czech Republic’s Ester Ledecka to win her first World Cup gold.

Bulgarian Yankov came into the competition full of confidence, having won the event on the same course last year, and after the qualification runs clocked the third fastest time of 1min 11.09secs, behind Karl and Sobolev.

The latter topped the timesheet and made it past Slovenia’s Tim Mastinak and Aaron March of Italy before cruising to victory in his semi-final by 1.62 against Korea’s Sang-Ho Lee.

Yankov and Karl met in the other semi, but in a close tussle, it was the Austrian who saw off the defending overall champion, who had to settle for bronze.

Proceedings were slightly easier in the final as Karl claimed gold by 0.45 over the Russian.

Meschik only recorded the fourth fastest time in qualification, but made it to the semi-finals where she outed Russia’s Alena Zavarzina by 0.64.

This set up a final clash against Ledecka and following an exciting race, Meschik edged ahead by 0.07.

World Cup action moves to another Italian venue, Cortina d’Ampezzo, on Sunday as the opening parallel slalom of the season takes place.