Niskanen claimed the men's 15-kilometres classic gold medal after 33min 6.05sec as he managed to hold off a comeback from Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who crossed the line 17.6sec later.

Sweden's William Poromaa narrowly missed out on silver as he clocked in 0.4sec behind Klæbo.

Niskanen set a blistering pace of 11:08 in the first 5km to distance himself from the chasing pack.

Klæbo took a while to get in gear as he only managed to set the seventh-fastest time in the opening third.

However, the following two segments saw him return to familiar form with an electrifyingly rapid performance as he hunted down Finland's triple Olympic champion.

Despite Niskanen visibly tiring and getting slower in each sector, he had done enough to see out the victory.

"To be racing among such a packed stadium and crowds out in the woods was an incredible feeling," said Niskanen.

Klæbo still has a huge lead in the overall standings with 1,375 points with Russia's Alexander Bolshunov leading the chase with 878 points.

Niskanen moved up to third place with the win and now has 585 points.

In the women's 10km classic, Johaug picked up her third gold medal of the season after pipping Russia's Natalia Nepryaeva to the finish line by 1.2sec.

The 33-year-old, who won three gold medals at Beijing 2022 including in the 10km classic, set the fastest times in all three sectors to see out a deserved win.

Finland Krista Pärmäkoski finished after 24:44.9 to bag the bronze medal in front of the home crowd.

Despite losing out in Lahti, Nepryaeva still managed to extend her lead atop the overall standings as she now has 973 points.

American Jessie Diggins and Ebba Andersson follow behind on 695 and 688 points, respectively.