The quartet of Synnøve Solemdal, Fanny Horn Birkeland, Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Olsbu finished in a total time of 1hr 07min 10sec to clinch the title ahead of France, whose team included Justin Braisaz, Anais Bescond, Anais Chevalier and women’s 15km individual champion Marie Dorin Habert.

They were 5.1 seconds adrift as they had to settle for the silver medal, while Germany’s Franziska Preuß, Franziska Hildebrand, Maren Hammerschmidt and Laura Dahlmeier came through to take bronze.

The result handed Eckhoff her second crown of her home IBU World Championships after she topped the podium in the 7.5km sprint event earlier on at the event in the Norwegian capital.

“We worked well as a team, and had a good strategy,” Eckhoff said.

“We have worked so hard, we finally managed to be on the podium, moreover, we won the world Championship title.”

The race began in still and clear conditions but it proved to be a tricky start for the French team as Braisaz used three spares in prone and two at the standing stage, leaving her team languishing down in 21st place early on.

Fuyuko Tachizaki shot clean to emerge as the shock leader before she was overtaken by Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen, who surged to the front of the field going into the first changeover.

Bescond managed to put in a much improved display compared to her compatriot as her clean shooting brought France back into contention, while Birkeland had left Norway well placed in eighth before handing the reins to Eckhoff.

The Norwegian demonstrated the ability that saw her crowned sprint world champion as her blistering pace on the skis gave her country a 20-second lead heading into the final leg.

Olsbu, the final Norwegian to take to the course, had to hold off strong challenges from pursuit world champion Dahlmeier and Dorin Habert before harnessing the energy of the roaring crowd to guide the hosts to gold.

The event in Oslo is due to cotinue tomorrow with the men’s 4x7.5km relay.