The quartet of Ole Einar Björndalen, Tarjei Bø, Johannes Thingnes Bø and Emil Hegle Svendsen triumphed in the 4x7.5km event in a time of 1 hour 13:16 min with six spare rounds.

It will be a particularly poignant gold medal for 42-year-old Björndalen, who has won a 20th world title at his last major event.

One of Norway's most popular athletes, Björndalen is also a member of the International Olympic Committee but there was controversy when he missed key meetings to prepare for the Worlds. 

The gold is his third medal of the Championships after silvers in the 10km sprint and 12.5km pursuit. 

Germany's Erik Lesser, Benedikt Doll, Arnd Peiffer and Simon Schempp were second, 11.5 seconds behind with five spare rounds, as Canada's Christian Gow, Nathan Smith, Scott Gow and Brendan Green took bronze with five spare rounds and a time which was 23.4 seconds adrift of the hosts.

It was a perfect shooting day in the Norwegian capital with legend Björndalen, an eight-times Olympic gold medallist, performing well in the first prone stage without missing a shot.

Lesser left the field behind after also shooting clean but the seven second advantage he created was eradicated when Tarjei Bø attacked Doll on leg two.

Canada, Slovakia and the Czech Republic then all took turns in the lead, but Tarjei Bø had a narrow advantage by the time of the second exchange.

Tarjei's brother Johannes shot clean on the prone stage and then blew away the standing targets to leave with a 16 second advantage over Peiffer.

The world sprint champion was brilliant flying around the skiing track, giving anchor Svendsen a 29 second lead over Germany's Schempp.

Despite the advantage being cut, Svendsen did enough to force the win, cleaning the prone stage before using two spares at the standing stage.

The hosts' win follows the women's 4x6km relay gold yesterday.

The IBU World Championships will conclude tomorrow with the men's and women's mass start races.