South Korea had proved the dominant team over the three days of short track competition at the Winter Universiade and appeared on course for the relay title.

Their team of Noh Do-hee, Kim A-Lang, Park Ji-won and Park Ji-yun impressed and eventually crossed the line in a time of 4min 12.322sec.

Russia's Ekaterina Efremenkova had pushed close in the final stages in an attempt to put her team into the lead, but fell at the finish.

The officials viewed the incident and deemed that the home favourite had been illegally prevented from passing, with Russia subsequently promoted to the gold medal position in 4:14.105.

Japan finished in 4:18.869 for silver, while Kazakhstan took bronze despite being some way adrift in 4:27.719.

"At the finish a Korean girl tried to save her positions so that I couldn't outrun her," said Efremenkova following the race.

"There was a fall and, as a result, she callously violated the rules.

"In this season, yes, I think they've done it two or three times."

There was little doubt about the result in the men's 5,000m relay as South Korea's team cruised to the gold medal in 6:50.062.

Russia were nearly four seconds down in 6:53.940 to take silver while Kazakhstan won bronze in 7:01.344.

South Korea's domination of the men's competition was highlighted by the 1,000m final, where they enjoyed a clean sweep of the medals.

Hong Kyunghwan took the gold medal in 1:43.727, with Lim Yong-jin and Park Ji-won rounding off the medal places in 1:43.745 and 1:43.837.

South Korea's Kim A-lang  won the women's 1,000m final, with the two-time Olympic champion earning a second individual title of the Univerisade.

She triumphed in 1:32.100, with France's Aurelie Noelle Monvoisin second in 1:32.155.

Efremenkova completed the top three in 1:32.173.

South Korea won five of the eight gold medals on offer in the short track programme, with China, France and Russia all earning one title.

As one ice sport event drew to a close, another began with figure skating competition starting at the Platinum Arena.

Russia's Maxim Kovtun is leading going into the men's free skating after concluding the short programme with 91.74 points.

Kovtun, a European Championship silver medallist in 2015 and 2017, leads from Italy's Matteo Rizzo.

Rizzo has a score of 90.78 at the halfway mark, while Russia's Andrei Lazukin is in third with 88.63 points.

Anastasia Poluianova and Dmitry Sopot lead the pairs competition with 58.92 points, while their compatriots Alisa Emifova and Alexander Korovin are in second on 57.72.

There were falls in the performances from Russia's Alexandra Koshevaia and Dmitry Bushlanov and Kazakhstan's Zhansaya Adykhanova and Abish Baytkanov.

The Russian duo were placed third with 54.75 points, while the pair from Kazakhstan are in fourth with a score of 27.64.

Russia celebrated gold and silver in both the men’s and women’s parallel slalom snowboard competitions.

Dmitrii Karlagachev progressed through to the men’s final before beating team-mate Dmitrii Sarsembaev in the final by 1.35 seconds.

Olympic silver medallist Lee Sangho prevented an all-Russian podium as he beat world champion Dmitrii Loginov by 1.35 seconds.

The result left Krasnoyarsk native Loginov with fourth place finishes in both the slalom and giant slalom events.

Milena Bykova upset Natalia Soboleva in the all Russian battle for gold in the women's final, as she beat the World Championship silver medallist by 0.52 seconds.

Yesterday's giant slalom champion Jeong Haerim of South Korea secured victory against Russia's Elizaveta Salikhova in the battle for bronze.