In the women’s competition, held over half the distance of the men, American Jessica Diggins claimed the second World Cup win of her career.

Halfvarsson, who triumphed in the classic sprint yesterday, powered home in a time of 23min 04.9sec to continue his excellent start to the season.

The Swede crossed the line in front of team-mate Marcus Hellner, 0.8 seconds adrift in silver medal position, while Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov took third.

The Russian finished 6.7 seconds behind Halfvarsson, meaning he will begin tomorrow’s 15km pursuit competition with a deficit of nearly half a minute.

Halfvarsson, a double World Championships silver medallist, will remain in the yellow bib and will bid for a third straight win tomorrow during the final event of the World Cup leg in the 1994 Winter Olympic Games host city.

"It was really fun to fight with Marcus until the finish," the Swede said.

Halfvarsson added: "My body felt good.

"I felt little bit tired in the first lap, probably from yesterday’s sprint.

"In the second lap I got better and I could ski really fast on the last uphill."

Diggins was made to work hard for her victory in the women’s 5km race as she clocked 12:40.3, beating current Cross-Country World Cup leader Heidi Weng of Norway by 4.8 seconds.

Norwegian veteran Marit Bjørgen, a six-time Olympic gold medallist, came home in third place, 15.8 seconds slower than Diggins.

The result means double world champion Weng has a 20.7 second advantage over the rest of the field for the 10km pursuit, with Norway's Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, who could only manage fifth today, her nearest challenger.

"I am very happy with today," said Diggins.

"There were so many people believing in me.

"I have been working a lot on my classic technique and we will see what happens tomorrow."