Russia, whose team also included Alexey Volkov, Maxim Tsvetkov and Anton Babikov, used just three spares on their way to winning in 1 hour 14min 15sec.

"I want to thank my team, my country and everyone for their support today," Shipulin said.

"Everyone did a great job to help us win this gold medal."

France’s Jean Guillaume Beatrix, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Simon Desthieux and Martin Fourcade claimed the silver medal with four spares, 5.8sec back.

Rounding out the podium were home favourites Daniel Mesotitsch, Julian Eberhard, Simon Eder and Dominik Landertinger, repeating their country’s performance from the 2005 World Championships in Hochfilzen, despite 10 spare rounds.

Landertinger’s strong anchor leg saw Austria finish 20.1 back.

Fellow countryman Eder said: "We really hoped for one medal at these World Championships.

"All team worked for it; our staff, our wax team.

"We can have a party tonight."

France established an early lead in the race, but it vanished in the third leg as Russia's Babikov went 10-for-10.

Babikov and Eder tagged respective team-mates Shipulin and Landertinger almost simultaneously, while France’s Desthieux tagged Fourcade 12sec back. 

Shipulin cleaned prone fast to take the lead, while Fourcade did the same to go out 8.9 back.

The Russian continued to pull away and came to the standing stage with a 12sec lead.

He used a spare, while Fourcade rapid-fired and left 4.2 back.

Shipulin increased his lead to 8.9 with 1,100 metres remaining and ended up winning comfortably.

Germany finished fourth with eight spares, 29.6 back, while Italy came fifth with five spares, 1:30.8 behind.

Ukraine completed the top six with 10 spares, 1:41.3 back.

Eleven-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Fourcade was involved in controversy with Shipulin last week.

It followed the mixed relay event in which France came second and Russia finished third.  

Fourcade walked off the podium, which was topped by Germany, after Shipulin and his team-mate Alexander Loginov refused to shake hands with him on the back of an incident during the race.

The Frenchman was alleged to have stepped on the skis of Loginov, who he has publicly criticised in the past after the Russian served a two-year doping ban, when he was about to be given the baton by Shipulin.

Growing tension resurfaced after the race and Fourcade allegedly only returned to the podium in order to avoid disqualification.

Action in Hochfilzen is due to conclude tomorrow with the women’s 12.5km and men’s 15km mass start competitions.