Norway delight home crowd in women's cross-country relay

The quartet of Maiken Caspersen Falla, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, Therese Johaug and Heidi Weng took gold ahead of the American team, with Sweden winning bronze.

Falla got the Norwegians off to a flying start and although Jacobsen fell behind Finland's Kerttu Niskanen on the second leg, ten-time world champion Johaug regained the lead on the penultimate lap.

Anne Kylloenen struggled for the Finns on that third leg and ultimately caused her team to miss out on a podium place – settling for fourth – but Weng maintained the advantage she was given by Johaug to take victory in 1:02:22.4hrs.

USA were seventh after Sophie Caldwell's opening leg but Sadie Maubet Bjornsen took them up to fifth, Rosie Brennan to third and Jessica Diggins then overhauled the youthful Swedes on the anchor leg for silver – 48.9s behind the winners

In the men's 4x7.5km relay, it was a Russian one-two as they dominated the competition.

It was actually Russia II – comprised of Ivan Yakimushkin, Evgeniy Belov, Illia Poroshkin and Sergey Ustiugov – that took gold in Lillehammer, Ustiugov coming from sixth place at the start of the final leg to finish 1.3s ahead of Russia I in a dramatic race.

There were six countries in contention for gold until the final stages and there was ultimately just one second between third and fifth in the final reckoning.

It was Norway I who took bronze as Finn Hågen Krogh's sprint finish was just enough to push compatriots Norway II, just one-tenth of a second behind, into fourth with the German quartet coming fifth.

The next set of relay races will take place in Planica, Slovenia, on 22nd December with the team sprint.

Sportsbeat 2019