Khrennikov won in a time of 39 min 22sec, beating nearest challenger Stanimir Belomazhev of Bulgaria by 2:58 at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Centre.

Fellow Russian Stepan Malinobskii rounded out the podium, finishing 3:41 off the pace.

In the women’s event, Kechkina led a Russian one-two with a time of 35:33.

Tatiana Oborina was 3:11 behind in the silver-medal position, while Bulgaria’s Antoniya Grigorova was a further 44sec back in third.

Russia did not have everything their own way today though with Italy proving way too strong for the opposition in both the men’s slalom and men’s team slalom events at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Skiing Centre.

Stefano Gross led an Italian podium sweep in the men’s slalom, clocking a time of 1:30.82 to beat runner-up Manfred Moelgg by 0.19sec and third-placed Cristian Deville by 0.60.

The trio’s combined time of 4:33.25 gave them a comfortable victory in the team competition, with Germany’s Hansi Schwaiger, Fabian Gratz and Carlo Dorn finishing 14.25 seconds back in the runners-up spot.

Taking the bronze medal were Iran’s Nima Baha, Behnam Kia Shemshaki and Porya Saveh Shemshaki, who were 30.68sec behind the Italians in third.

Among the other victorious nations today were Austria, who triumphed in the biathlon mixed relay event made up of a 2x6 kilometres women’s leg and 2x7.5km men’s leg.

The quartet of Dunja Zdouc, Katerina Innerhofer, Peter Brunner and David Komatz won in 1:19:51.7 at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Centre.

France’s Coline Varcin, Enora Latuilliere, Baptiste Jouty and Antonin Guigonnat were just 3.2sec behind in the silver-medal position, while Russia’s Uliana Kaisheva, Galina Nechkasova, Matvey Eliseev and Maxim Tsvetkov were 2:59.4 back in third.

In short track speed skating action at the Iceberg Skating Palace, Italy's Arianna Fontana followed up her win yesterday in the women's 500m event by taking top honours in the women's 1,000m.

As was the case with the 500m, Fontana beat China's Yang Yang to the gold medal after registering a time of 1:31.884.

Yang posted 1:31.943, while fellow Chinese Wang Runyuan came third in 1:32.234.

The men's 1,000m event saw South Korea's Jin Kim Sun prevail in 1:25.574, with Italy's Yuri Confortola second in 1:26.861 and China's Xu Hongzhi third in 1:29.004.