The Norwegian quartet, comprising of Heidi Weng, Therese Johaug, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Marit Bjørgen, crossed the line in 49min 04.70sec to put a disappointing fifth-placed finish at Sochi 2014 firmly behind them.

Sweden's foursome of Sofia Bleckur, Charlotte Kalla, Maria Rydqvist and Stina Nilsson took silver in front of their home crowd in Falun, 29.2 seconds behind the winners, while Finland's Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, Kerttu Niskanen, Riitta-Liisa Roponen and Krista Parmakoski completed the podium, 30.9 seconds off the pace.

Johaug opened up a strong lead for the Norwegian's in the second leg, and this was stretched further by Jacobsen in the third with one of the fastest skate legs.

Bjørgen, a six-time Olympic champion, completed the job and has now tied with Russian great Yelena Välbe on 14 gold medals at the Championships.

Austria's Bernhard Gruber came out on top in the men's Nordic combined large hill event ©Getty Images



Meanwhile, in the men's Nordic combined large hill event, Austria's Bernhard Gruber clocked a time of 22:45.8 to claim his first individual World Championship title.

Gruber pulled away from France's Francois Braud in the final lap of the 10km cross-country race to finish 11.9 seconds ahead of his closest challenger, while Germany's Johannes Rydzek was a further three seconds back in the bronze-medal position.

The 32-year-old, who contributed to Austria's 4x5km normal and large hill team titles in Oslo four years ago, held a slender lead after the ski jumping element and attacked on the last uphill climb to seal victory. 

The men's 4x10km relay is set to take place tomorrow as the action continues in Falun. 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
February 2015: Olsson bags second Nordic Skiing World Championships gold on home soil