The three-time Olympic champion, who claimed the gold medal in the mass start at Pyeongchang 2018 last month, leapfrogged Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen into top spot on the leaderboard after she completed the 7.5 kilometres course in 21min 31.8sec.

Belarusian Darya Domracheva was second, 9.9 adrift of the victorious Russian-born Slovakian, while Juliya Dzhyma of Ukraine finished third.

Mäkäräinen came into the penultimate leg of the World Cup season as the overall leader but relinquished her spot to Kuzmina after she languished down in 40th place.

Kuzmina now has a six-point advantage over her Finnish rival on a total of 673 points.

Domracheva currently occupies third position on 581.

"After the Olympics, I was so tired and spent so much time at home with my children and meeting with the people and sponsors," said Kuzmina.

"Then I went to Kontiolahti and was almost homesick, but here, I started to refresh my mind; the body is still strong. 

"I can go be strong on the tracks; my skis were perfect again today. 

"One mistake on the shooting range was not good, but good enough. 

"I did not look to the right or left today or see what the other competitors did. 

"I just did what I had to do today."

Norway's Johannes Thingnes Bø made small inroads into Martin Fourcade's lead in the battle for the men's crown as compatriot Henrik L’Abee Lund claimed his first World Cup win with a shock triumph in the 10km sprint.

Lund shot clean and finished in 26:10.3 to beat Bø, while Fourcade recovered from a fall and broken pole early on in the race to maintain his record of having ended on the podium at every World Cup competition so far this season.

The result saw Bø reduce the deficit to the five-time Olympic champion from France, who remains in top spot on 936 points.

Fourcade is 37 ahead of Bø's score of 899.