Norway edge past Russia to win relay thriller

A head-to-head duel in the season-opening 4x7.5km relay, in which the rest of the field was left for dead, eventually saw Finn Haagen Krogh outsprint Andrey Melnichenko in the final few metres to give the Norwegian quartet victory by just 0.7 seconds.

Emil Iversen got Norway off to a strong start, as they had a 16.1-second lead over Russia – who had Evgeniy Belov on the opening leg – by the time of the first changeover.

However, Alexander Bolshunov's storming second leg – during which he sped past Martin Johnsrud Sundby – erased that deficit and gave Russia a nine-second lead, although Sjur Roethe pulled it back for the Scandinavians on leg three.

Roethe and Denis Spitsov were inseparable as they handed over to their anchor-leg skiers and Krogh did just enough to edge past Melnichenko on the line to make it double Norwegian success on home soil after their women's quartet had triumphed earlier in the day.

"We're used to a tough race against Russia now – it's been the same for the last few relays," said Sundby.

"They have a really strong team but today we had our last-leg finisher Finn back in the squad and it was really nice to see him back in shape.

"He's back again now and that's good for us. We hoped for a nice race against Russia and we got it."

A secondary Norwegian quartet – comprised of Didrik Toenseth, Hans Christer Holund, Magne Haga and Simen Hegstad Krueger – took bronze, finishing 53.4 seconds behind their compatriots, while Switzerland were fourth as they crossed the line more than two minutes after the winners.