The Norwegian duo of Thekla Brun-Lie and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen secured their country's first medal of the event as they topped the podium in the single mixed relay in 35min 39.6sec.

Julia Simon and Emilien Jacquelin of France were the recipients of the silver medal, 8.6 seconds adrift.

The event is not limited to European athletes and the American team of Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey took bronze, 9.1 seconds behind the victorious Norwegian pair.

Yulia Zhuravok, Iryna Varvynets, Artem Pryma and Dmytro Pidruchnyi sealed the mixed relay honours in a combined time of 1hr 1min 40.1sec.

The Russian quartet of Victoria Slivko, Anastasia Zagoruiko, Evgeniy Garanichev and Alexander Loginov did enough for silver as they crossed the line 11.7 seconds slower than the Norwegian team.

Emilie Aagheim Kalkenberg, Kaia Woeien Nicolaisen, Haavard Gutuboe Bogetveit and Fredrik Gjesbakk of Norway finished third.

The result handed Varvynets a second gold medal of the event after she clinched the sprint title earlier in the week.

Pryma was tasked with the crucial standing stage and he delivered to set up victory for his nation.

"I did not think about it too much and I just tried to do my job and hit the targets," he said.

"It worked out.”