Norway on top of the world again after taking team sprint title

Having lifted the trophy at the 2015 World Championships in Falun and the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, the Norwegians were on top form again as the duo of Heidi Weng and Maiken Caspersen Falla recorded a time of 20:20.56 minutes.

That was enough to beat Yulia Belorukova and Natalia Matveeva of Russia by 5.56 seconds, with American pair Sadie Bjornsen and Jessie Diggins 18.38s back.

However, Bjornsen and Diggins were the first duo from the USA to win a World Championship medal in a classic style team sprint.

In the men's event, it was Russia who came out on top as Nikita Kruikov and Sergey Ustiugov clocked a time of 17:40.69.

That was enough to push the Italian pair of Dietmar Noeckler and Federico Pellegrino into second place, as they were 2.14s slower.

Gold and silver looked to be going to Norway and Finland but a crash between Emil Iversen and Iivo Niskanen enabled Russia and Italy to nip past them, while Niskanen recovered marginally quicker than his Scandinavian rival to take bronze for the Finns alongside Sami Jauhojaervi.

Sportsbeat 2017