European champion Kyburz was once again in sublime form as he raced home in a time of 37min 09sec to take the title ahead of Norway’s Olav Lundanes, who had to settle for silver.

Lundanes was 14 seconds adrift of the Swiss’ winning time, with Kyburz’s team-mate Daniel Hubmann rounding off the podium as he came home in third place.

The result handed Kyburz another world crown after he claimed victory in the sprint race at the 2011 event on home soil in Switzerland.

“For a Swiss, there is not much that can be bigger than to win a technically difficult middle distance in Nordic terrain in Sweden,” he said.

“I haven’t been accurate enough.

“I have been running too much without having exact control, now I am running more from stone to stone – from detail to detail.”

Silver medallist Lundanes was made to rue a mistake on one particular leg, which ended up costing him around 20 seconds of valuable time.

“I ran a bit in the wrong direction when I followed what I thought was a track,” he said.

“I should really have not done that.”

Sweden’s Alexandersson delivered gold for the home crowd as she raced to a dominant win in the women’s middle distance competition.

The Swede completed the tricky course in 33.57, with Norway again coming in second as Heidi Bagstevold finished 35 seconds behind in silver medal position.

Bronze went the way of Russia’s Natalia Gemperle, who missed out on silver by an agonising three seconds.

“I had a small mistake on the third control,” Alexandersson said.

“Then it went well.

“I’ve done everything possible to do well.”