Kiwi Corey Peters earns silver at World Para Alpine Skiing Championships

Corey Peters with his silver medal.

New Zealand sit skier Corey Peters has earned a silver medal in the downhill event on opening day at the 2017 World Para Alpine Skiing Championships in Italy.

American Andrew Kurka stormed to his maiden world title in the men's sitting, as a series of other big names crashed out. Austria's Roman Rabl and Japan's Taiki Morii, the silver and bronze medallists respectively from 2015, failed to finish the Di Prampero course.

Japan's Paralympic champion Akira Kano was third.

Peters skied wells through the challenging technical top section and carried excellent speed to the flats. Strong technical skiing on the bottom half of the course allowed him to build and maintain his speed with a few heart-stopping moments for spectators has he gained air off the jumps.

As defending world champion, Peters has mixed feelings about the result but, with just under one year to go until the Paralympic Winter Games in Korea, he is keeping his focus on the big picture.

"My main goal this week is to continue to build for PyeongChang next year but also to try and defend my Downhill and Super G world titles. I felt confident coming into today, having had two solid training runs on the hill. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite fast enough on the day, coming in second by 0.61 seconds. I'm still super happy to make the podium on day one as the competition is obviously really strong here. This result gives me good confidence coming into tomorrow's Super G looking to go one better."

Adam Hall, who competes in the standing category, was pleased with his eleventh place finish on a course that favoured those that could tuck for speed.

Super-G will be contested next on Thursday night NZT.