Granada Day 3: Narrowest of wins for Italy's Tentori in super-G

Tentori, a 23-year-old student from Milan University, completed the course in a time of 1 minute 23.74 seconds to win his country's first medal of the games, with Oliveras settling for silver at 0.01 seconds in arrears. Switzerland's Sandro Boner secured the bronze medal with a time of 1:24.23.

"It was a really difficult course because of varied gradients and hidden slalom doors," said a nevertheless ecstatic Tentori, who won the gold medal despite breaking a ski pole in the process.

"The trick was to ski with utmost concentration but also a little spark of madness," said silver medallist Oliveras, who overcame a serious illness last year to be in shape for the 27th edition of the bi-annual student winter games.

In equally clement weather - warm sun and mild winter temperatures - the women's super-G was won by Norway's Kristine Fausa Aasberg, who also secured her nation's first medal of the Winter Universiade with a solid time of 1:26.61.

Starting in nineteenth place - when the podium already seemed decided - Aasberg tamed the highly technical course with a near-flawless run to beat Poland's Karolina Chrapek by 0.64 seconds and Sweden's Helena Rapaport by 0.82 seconds.

Making up for a rare non-appearance on consecutive podiums, Russia won its fifteenth gold medal of the games when Nikolay Olyunin triumphed in the rescheduled men's snowboard cross final.

Enjoying the excellent conditions, the 23-year-old from Krasnoyarsk beat Austria's Alessandro Haemmerle (silver) and France's Nathan Birrien (bronze) in the final, with fourth-place Kevin Klossner of Switzerland beaten out of a podium finish.

Bulgaria's Alexandra Jekova - the 27-year-old competing in her first and last Winter Universiade - won the women's snowboard cross final ahead of France's Chloe Trespeuch and Switzerland's Simona Meiler, with another French women, Nelly Moenne Loccoz, finishing out of the medals in fourth.

China's Xiaoyu Yu and Yang Jin won the figure skating pairs free gold medal at the Granada Igloo ahead of Russia and France. The Chinese pair led after both components, scoring 64.75 in the short program and 117.17 in the free skating for a total score of 181.92.

Russia's Kristina Astakhova and Alexei Rogonov took the silver medal with a total of 174.87 (59.88/114.99) while French pair Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres jumped above Russia's Vera Bazarova and Andrei Deputat thanks to a strong free skate to secure the bronze medal with 168.19 points (57.28/110.91).

The curling group games continued on Friday with, most notably, Sweden's men edging Switzerland 9-7 in a real nail-biting encounter, and Great Britain's women - one of the favourites - beating Canada 7-4. Great Britain's men shaded a tight match against Japan 7-6 while Sweden's men returned with a narrow 5-4 win over the USA.

Hosts Spain experienced contrasting fortunes on the ice against Switzerland, with the women's team losing 4-1 at the Fuentenueva Pavilion but the men's team surprising with a 12-6 victory. "We did not expect to win," said Spanish captain Sergio Vez.

In ice hockey, it was one-way traffic for Slovakia's men who beat China 13-1 and an equally one-sided affair when the Russian women's team trounced Kazakhstan 12-1. In the earlier game, hosts Spain lost to the Czech Republic 5-2 in Group A of the men's tournament.

Saturday's programme features the finals of the ice dancing free dance, the women's combined skiing and the snowboard halfpipe competition.