Poland, centre, won the team Gundersen gold here today ©Almaty 2017

Poland won the 2017 Winter Universiade Nordic combined team Gundersen gold medal after emphatically winning the 3x5 kilometres cross-country race at the Alatau Cross-Country Skiing & Biathlon Complex here.

The Polish team, consisting of Adam Cieslar, Pawel Slowiok and Wojciech Marusarz, started 20 seconds behind Japan following this morning's ski jumping element but wiped out that deficit within the first exchange.

Japan were caught by their European opponents after just 5km as Poland then went on to extend their lead in the remainder of the race.

They ultimately crossed the line first in a time of 34 min 27.9sec.

Japan will be disappointed to have surrendered a 20 second lead so easily.

Japan led after the ski jumping stage but fell back to third overall ©Almaty 2017
Japan led after the ski jumping stage but fell back to third overall ©Almaty 2017

They started in pole position following this morning's ski jumping success at the Sunkar International Ski Jumping Complex where they claimed 356.8 points.

It was not to be for the Asian country though as not only did Poland surpass them, but so did Russia.

The Russian team of Timofey Borisov, Samir Mastiev and Viacheslav Barkov  took second place in 34:57.7.

Japan's Shota Horigome, Go Sonehara and Go Yamamoto completed the podium in a time of 35:29.1.