Norway saw off the challenge of Austria and Italy to win the mixed junior Nordic combined world title ©JWSC2021

Gyda Westvold Hansen clinched her second gold medal of the Nordic Junior World Ski Championships after helping Norway defend the mixed team Nordic combined title in Vuokatti.

Hansen defeated Marte Leinan Lund to win gold in the individual women’s event earlier this week but they put any rivalry to one side to steer Norway to victory in the Finnish resort.

The Norwegian team that also comprised of Eidar Johan Strøm and Andreas Skoglund proved too strong as they finished in a combined time of 41min 29.1sec.

Austria, made up of Manuel Einkemmer, Lisa Hirner, Sigrun Kleinrath and Stefan Rettenegger had to settle for the silver in 41:33.1.

The bronze medal went to Italy featuring Iacopo Bortolas, Annika Sieff, Daniela Dejori and Domenico Mariotti after registering 42:21.1.

Martin Kirkeberg Mørk claimed Norway’s fourth gold medal of the tournament when he came out on top in the men’s 10 kilometre cross-country freestyle event.

Mørk secured victory with a time of 24:26.6, defeating Alexander Ståhlberg of Finland in 24:41.5 and Olivier Léveillé of Canada in 24:53.9.

There was a Russian one-two in the women’s five kilometre cross-country freestyle contest with Veronika Stepanova taking the title.

Stepanova powered home in 13:44.3 to clinch gold ahead of Evgeniya Krupitskaya in 14:00.8 and Norway’s Margrethe Bergane in 14:11.7.

Izabela Marcisz of Poland clocked 28:13.6 to take gold in the women’s under-23 10km cross-country freestyle competition.

Louise Lindström of Sweden was second with 28:24.8 while Hedda Østberg Amundsen of Norway secured bronze with 28:33.2.

The men’s under-23 15km cross-country freestyle event was won by Frenchman Hugo Lapalus in 35:27.6.

The silver medal went to Germany’s Friedrich Moch in 35:41.4 ahead of Iver Tildheim Andersen of Norway in 35.46.3.

Austria sit in second place in the overall medal table with three golds after the men’s junior ski jumping team triumphed.

Elias Medwed registered the biggest jump of 98 metres as David Haagen, Daniel Tschofenig and Niklas Bachlinger contributed to a winning score of 982 points.

The Slovenian team of Žak Mogel, Jan Bombek, Rok Masle and Jernej Presečnik came second with 914.7 while the Russian quartet of Ilya Mankov, Maksim Kolobov, Danil Sadreev and Mikhail Purtov completed the podium with 903.1.

Competition is due to continue tomorrow with three cross-country relay races in women’s and men’s junior and mixed under-23s.