Thomas Luzcey of France finished three seconds behind the leading pair in third.

"The race was very difficult and I am happy I was able to compete cold-hearted," said Pierbon afterwards.

"Calmness helped me to ski well."

There was some unsurprising success for the host nation in the day's only cross country race, as Sergey Ermilov and Vladimir Masyorov secured Russian team sprint victory.

Ukrainian rivals Volodymyr Pyshniak and Andriy Andryishyn finished second, while the final place on the podium was taken by Zhang Xiaokun and Ren Jianchou of China.

With no action taking place today in snowboarding, focus elsewhere was on curling, as China continued their superb record in the men's competition with a narrow win over South Korea.

They remain the only unbeaten team, with Japan, Switzerland and Canada the closest challengers.

It was a day of shocks in the women's competition, meanwhile, as Russia slipped to a 7-6 loss to Croatia, while Canada were also humbled, 14-8 by the impressive Hungarians.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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