The quartet of Eva Puskarcikova, Gabriela Soukalova, Jitka Landova and Veronika Vitkova added victory in the 4x6 kilometres relay to their success in Oberhof last week with a finishing time of 1hour 23min 57.7sec.

Belarus were second, hosts Germany finished third while fourth place went to Norway.

Despite the difficult conditions - which plagued the event throughout - Puskarcikova got her team off to the best possible start with an excellent round of shooting in the first leg as she began to build a healthy 25.1 second lead over Canada, who were a further 2.6 seconds ahead of Poland.

The weather wreaked havoc on the second leg as neither team could build any speed and the spare rounds started to build up.

Soukalova however managed to find some strength on the tracks and she continued to pull away from the chasing pack with each step, leading by 1:07.8 ahead of Germany's Franziska Hildebrand.

Vitkova built on the excellent performances of her three team-mates to give the Czech Republic a deserved victory ©Getty Images



Jitka Landova then carried on the theme of Czech dominance, although Vanessa Hinz did claw some of Landova's lead back.

Nadezhda Pisareva kept Belarus in the mix and at the final exchange the Czech team's lead over Germany was down to 30.1 seconds, before Vitkova - who also enjoyed individual success in Oberhof - retook control and extended the advantage to 54 seconds after the first loop.

Despite using a spare round, Vitkova left the stadium unopposed and she eventually strolled to a comfortable win to seal a perfect start to the latest World Cup competition for the Czechs.

"It was easier for me today because the other girls gave me such a big lead," she said.

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