Isac von Krusenstierna and Tove Alexandersson won the respective men’s and women’s sprint titles after producing the best time around a former military fortress in the Czech Republic.

The top 45 athletes from the qualification races took part in the final, with the women tackling a 3.5-kilometre course and the men competing over 3.9km.

Alexandersson clinched victory in a time of 14min 3sec - beating Natalia Gemperle of the Russian Orienteering Federation by nine seconds.

Maja Alm of Denmark was third in 14:20, with Simona Aebersold of Switzerland and Alice Leake of Britain joint fourth in 14:24.

The men’s race was won by Von Krusenstierna after the Swede came home in 13:46.

Kasper Harlem Fosser of Norway came second in 13:53, while Tim Robertson of New Zealand was third in 13:59.

The top five also featured Yannick Michiels of Belgium and Max Peter Bejmer of Sweden after clocking 14:05 and 14:06 respectively.

Four of the next five athletes were Swiss as Florian Howald, Riccardo Rancan, Matthias Kyburz and Daniel Hubmann finished in the top 10 along with ninth-placed Jakub Glonek of the Czech Republic.

Action is due to continue tomorrow with the sprint relay.