He took the win away from Andreas Kirkeng with a second wind after the Norwegian had cut his lead down and overtaken towards the closing stages.

Hirose finished after 22min 44.9sec while Kirkeng dropped off hugely, coming in nine seconds later, and the United States' John Steel Hagenbuch secured bronze.

The win marked Hirose's third gold after triumphs in the 10km individual classic and mixed team sprint.

There was another multi-medallist in the women's pursuit as Hilla Niemela secured a second gold in 12:27.8.

She managed to fend off Mariel Pulles of Estonia who clocked in 7.8sec later before Italy's Maria Boccardi won third in 12:41.6.

The podium was in the exact same order as yesterday's 5km classic.

Jan Zabystran performed under pressure to capture men's giant slalom gold in Alpine skiing at Whiteface Mountain.

Switzerland's Eric Wyler moved into the lead with a combined time of 2:02.57 to put pressure on the Czech who was the last skier to go.

Zabystran produced a superb showing, darting down the hill to beat Wyler by 1.34.

France's Jeremie Lagier took bronze in 2:02.93.

It is Zabystran's second gold of the Games after winning the men's super-G crown.

Gore Mountain saw Japan's Rai Kasamura and Yuna Koga extend their country's phenomenal medal tally by taking respective gold medals in the men's and women's freeski slopestyle contests.

Kasamura had already won the title before completing his second run after none of his rivals could better his score of 95.00 but still produced an even better performance, notching 97.75 to clinch an emphatic victory.

His compatriot Kasamura Sato notched 93.50 for silver and Paul Vieuxtemps of Thailand's 93.25 was enough for bronze.

Koga's 94.75 sealed the women's title ahead of Switzerland's Michelle Rageth and Britain's Thea Fenwick in second and third, respectively.

Kazakhstan were in superb form in today's biathlon as they had four of the top five athletes in the men's 10km sprint.

Bekentay Turlubekov produced a blistering time of 27:51.5 as he shot clean on both trips to the range for gold.

He was joined on the podium by the US' Bjorn Westervelt and compatriot Alexandr Mukhin who finished in 27:59.8 and 28:13.7, respectively.

Kirill Bauer and Vadim Kurales finished fourth and fifth, respectively, for Kazakhstan.

Poland's Anna Nedza-Kubiniec surged to victory in the women's 7.5km sprint after recording a time of 24:17.1.

She put in a flawless performance in her first trip to the shooting range before missing twice on the second, which resulted in a minute of penalty time.

Canadian Shilo Rousseau was unable to replicate her 12.5km individual race win as she settled for silver, 24.1sec off the pace.

Czech Republic's Tereza Jandova narrowly won bronze in 25:01.3 as she held off France's Anna Blanc by 0.7sec.

In the mixed team ski jumping final, Adam Nizkin was the star of the show as he recorded a stratospheric jump worth 111.2 points to give Poland gold with a score of 412.3 overall, beating Japan's 405.0 and the Polish second team on 369.6.

Livia Tanno pulled off a sensational final run to win women's snowboard slopestyle gold at Gore Mountain.

The Swiss athlete was sitting in second after scoring 35.25 in the first attempt before a stunning 90.00-point second run saw her clinch the title.

France's Noemie Equy also improved her score to register 68.50 for silver.

Slovenia's Tinkara Valcl was in pole position after the initial run with 52.25 but only managed 27.25 in the second as she slipped to third to take bronze.

Poland took the women's team pursuit speed skating crown with a blistering performance under the lights.

The trio of Olga Kaczmarek, Natalia Jabrzyk and Iga Wojtasik crossed the finish in 3:22.10 to secure gold.

South Korea, who faced Poland in the final run, also produced a superb race as they recorded 3:25.35 for silver.

Japan had been leading but they slipped down to third with 3:26.82.

Despite windy and snowy conditions, the Japanese team including Yuto Tanigaki, Motonaga Arito and Kazuya Yamada registered a record-breaking time of 4:07.05 to clinch the men's title at the Olympic Speed Skating Oval.

South Korea had broken the record with 4:09.62 only for Japan to go even faster just minutes later.

The bronze medal went to Canada in a time of 4:11.28.