Billstam clocked a time of 34min 46sec to finish comfortably ahead of Finland’s Merja Rantanen and fellow Swede Emma Johansson, second and third respectively in Darnaway Forest, Moray.

Billstam’s steady performance when others were making major errors was enough to secure victory, despite the fact she herself lost 25 seconds to Johansson after choosing a lower route to the first control and she was the fastest runner in only three of the 22 legs. 

She caught and overtook several of the runners who started ahead of her, running with Norway's Mari Fasting from control 12 to the end, and indicated afterwards that catching the other runners had encouraged her to maintain her speed through the latter part of the course.

"I was very nervous before the start," said Billstam.

"The course was very challenging at the beginning and faster towards the end, particularly because I had caught up a lot of fast runners."

Team-mate Johansson looked as if she was on course for the gold, leading three controls from the finish.

She lost over 90 seconds with a surprising error on the penultimate control and ended up with bronze, however.

"I had a fantastic race until that control, where I got stuck in a really green area, so I'm a little disappointed," said Johansson.

Meanwhile in the men’s race, Switzerland’s Daniel Hubmann took top honours to add to the sprint, long and relay golds he has won previous Championships. 

Hubmann posted a time of 34:23 to finish three seconds ahead of France's surprise silver medallist Lucas Basset, with Sweden’s Olle Boström a further 10 seconds back in third.

Like Billstam, Hubmann was fastest on very few individual legs, but he managed to keep his focus when navigating through the technically-demanding terrain.

His biggest mistake came on control 13 as he drifted slightly left on the line to cost him 18 seconds, but barring that, his performance was near perfect.

"I was in control during the race, and felt good," said Hubmann.

"Now I'm not sure about some of my route choices - I might have lost some time on them.

"Overall, though, I'm happy."

Tomorrow’s action in Scotland is due to see the relay take centre stage, also in Darnaway Forest.


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