Andersen seals maiden success in Ruka

Andersen, 24, who was part of the Norway foursome that claimed team gold in Val di Fiemme, Italy, last season, is the first incumbent of the yellow bib after topping the podium in Ruka, Finland.

He racked up 124 points and incurred just 0.04 seconds of time penalties during the ski-jumping section before crossing the line first in the cross country in 12:54.0, with his overall time of 12:58.0 placing him 7.7 seconds ahead of countryman Schmid (13:05.7), who was celebrating his 34th birthday.

Victor Andersen said: "I'm really, really satisfied, of course.

"It's a win today and I never knew how it was going to turn out but it couldn’t have gone any better, so I can’t complain.

"I'm just really happy and also happy for the birthday boy."

Japan’s Akito Watabe (13:09.0) completed the rostrum after overcoming Austrian Mario Seidl (13:13.4), whose countryman Wilhelm Denifl (13:27.1), and another Norwegian in Joergen Graabak (13:37.4) made up the rest of the top six.

Sportsbeat 2017