Iaroslava Pervakova, Valeria Vasnetcova and Polina Shevnina, the 2015 silver medallists, finally got their hands on the title as they clocked a combined time of 55min 33.8sec to finish comfortably ahead of the Czech Republic.

The team of Natalie Jurcova, Marketa Davidova and Tereza Vinklarova were 24.6 seconds adrift of the winning pace, while Norway, whose team included Kristina Skjevdal, Emilie Aagheim Kalkenberg and Karoline Erdal, secured bronze.

Ukraine failed to earn a spot on the podium as they were fourth, with Russia fifth and Slovenia sixth.

In a topsy-turvy race, where the lead continually changed hands in the early stages, Russia were the first to move into pole position before they were quickly usurped by Slovenia.

After the second prone stage, the Slovenian team still had the advantage over Ukraine, with Poland also in contention.

The last prone proved to be decisive as Russia had stormed to the front of the pack, narrowly ahead of the Czechs, who had quietly kept themselves in the race with a solid if not spectacular display, and after Slovenia were forced to go around the penalty loop twice, the Russian trio seized control before powering to an excellent triumph.

The men’s 3x7.5km relay title at the event went to the Norwegian team of Endre Stroemsheim, Aleksander Fjeld Andersen and Harald Oeygard, who won comfortably in a time of 59:30.6 to beat defending champions Russia.

Egor Tutmin, Viacheslav Maleev and Igor Malinovskii had to settle for silver, 39.1 seconds behind Norway, with the Italian team of Michael Durand, Peter Tumler and Danielle Cappellari coming through to take bronze.

The IBU World Junior Championships come to a close tomorrow with the women’s junior 4x6km relay and the men’s 4x7.5km relay races.