Russia swept the podium in the event at the last two editions of the Winter Universiade and were favoured to do so again, having already won five of the six men's medals on offer so far.

Ivanov and Nikita Porshnev, the silver and bronze medallists in the 10km sprint discipline, headed their challenge in the early kilometres.

Porshnev proved the faster of the duo over the ground and looked to move clear after the first two shooting sections.

A missed shot in the third section forced him to take a penalty lap, allowing Ivanov to take the lead.

The Russian was able to hold on after a clean shoot in the final stage, while Porshnev received another penalty.

Ivanov came through to the finish to take the gold medal in a time of 34min 10.7sec.

He ended 14 seconds clear of Porshnev, who was left ruing the two missed shots which ultimately cost him the title.

The silver completed his set of medals from the Universiade, having already won 20km gold and 10km sprint bronze.

Eduard Latypov replicated the feat by winning bronze in 35:17, adding to his sprint crown and 20km silver.

Russia's third consecutive clean sweep in the women's biathlon events was led by Ekaterina Moshkova, who earned the 10km pursuit title.

She added to her sprint gold medal by finishing the race in a time of 32:59.1, despite receiving three shooting penalties.

It would prove to be a repeat podium from the sprint as Irina Kazakevich won silver in 33:16.5, while Tamara Voronina secured bronze in 34:04.4.

The potential of a further flurry of Russian medals emerged in the women's giant slalom as Alpine skiing competition continued.

Ekaterina Tkachenko recorded the fastest first run of the competition to top the standings, supplemented by team-mates Iulija Pleshkova, Anastasia Gornostaeva and Sofia Krokhina.

Their stranglehold on the top four positions was put under threat by Denise Dingsleder as the Austrian clocked 58.99 in her second run.

The fastest second run time saw her end with a combined 1:59.39 for the event.

She watched as three Russians failed to improve on her overall time, which ensured Dingsleder of a silver medal.

Tkachenko backed up her opening run to stop the clock at 1:58.52 to deny Dingsleder’s dream of gold.

The Austrian was left settling for silver as Pleshkova won the bronze medal at 0.94 behind the winner.

Russia would claim all of the gold medals earned on skis today, as they emerged as the winners of the mixed team sprint event as ski orienteering continued.

Their team completed the race in a time of 47:39 to earn gold by a comfortable margin.

Norway would take both the silver and bronze medals, with their teams ending 1:03 and 1:05 off the pace of the winners respectively.

Ski orienteering competition will conclude with the middle distance events on Sunday (March 10).