In front of a large crowd, who had gathered to enjoy the evening’s action, the team of Marcel Guerrini, Vital Albini, Jolanda Neff and Lars Forster clocked 55min 36sec to finish ahead of the French outfit.

Victor Koretzky, Axel Zingle, Pauline Prevot Ferrand and Jordan Sarrou were forced to settle for silver as they crossed the line in a combined 56:45, more than a minute adrift of the victorious Swiss side.

Germany, whose team was comprised of Georg Egger, Niklas Schel, Sabine Spitz and Ben Zwiehoff, were a further six seconds adrift as they narrowly missed out on pipping the French to second place.

The Germans came home comfortably in front of the Czech Republic’s Jitka Skarnitzlova, Jan Vastl, Ondrej Cink and Richard Holec, who finished outside of the podium spots in fourth.

In what proved to be an exciting race with a thrilling finale, Guerrini signalled Swiss intentions from the outset with a blistering opening leg.

He managed to complete the course, which organisers claimed would offer “fair and fun racing” for the riders, in a rapid time of 14:19 to set the tone for a commanding performance from his nation.

Guerrini’s effort gave Switzerland the lead ahead of France, and that is the way it stayed for the majority of the race.

World champion Prevot Ferrand had seized the initiative for the French early on in the third leg but she was hunted down by Neff, cross-country gold medallist at last year’s inaugural European Games in Baku.

While that battle between two of the leading nations for gold was going on, The Netherlands, whose team featured Milan Vader, Michiel Van Der Heijden, Marc Bouwmeester and Annemarie Worst, had quietly emerged as one of the main challengers.

The Dutch team led going into the last leg but Worst struggled, eventually ending down in eighth place, as Forster powered through to seal gold for Switzerland, leaving the rest of the field in his wake.

The competition in Huskvarna is due to continue tomorrow with cross country eliminator qualification and finals.