The 23-year-old won normal hill and team titles at the 2019 World Championships, while Riiber has proved the dominant force on the World Cup circuit over the past three seasons.

Riiber found himself with work to do after the ski jumping section of the event today, after placing third on 137.6 points.

The standings were led by Ryota Yamamoto on 143.1 with the Japanese athlete earning cushions of 20 and 22 seconds over his compatriot Akito Watabe and Riiber respectively heading into the 10 kilometre cross-country event.

Yamamoto’s advantage was quickly removed on the cross-country section with a four-man leading group followed by chasers including Norway’s Jens Luraas Oftebro and Finland’s Ilkka Herola, who had begun 46 seconds and 1:01 behind.

The leading group were caught by the chasers, with Herola launching a bid for victory on the final lap.

He was denied victory in a sprint finish as Olympic silver medallist Riiber came through to triumph in a time of 23min 1.2sec.

Herola was left settling for the silver medal at 0.4 down, with Oftebro securing the bronze at 0.9 behind the winner.

Germany’s Eric Frenzel finished outside the podium places, ending fourth at 5.9 off the pace.

The women’s normal hill team ski jumping event was also held today.

Austria celebrated victory with Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, Sophie Sorschag, Chiara Hölzl and Marita Kramer topping the podium.

The quartet finished with a total of 959.3 points after the two competition rounds.

Kramer, who finished fourth in the individual event yesterday, achieved jumps of 102.5 and 104 metres to lead her team to victory.

Newly crowned individual world champion Ema Klinec was part of the Slovenian team which finished narrowly behind in second.

Klinec, Nika Kriznar, Spela Rogelj and Ursa Bogataj achieved a total of 957.9 points to finish as the runners-up.

Norway were third with their team of Silje Opseth, Anna Odine Stroem, Thea Minyan Bjoerseth and Maren Lundby finishing on 942.1.