Chappuis triumphs

The 25-year-old Olympic and 2011 world champion saw his lead trimmed on Saturday when Akito Watabe of Japan chalked up victory, but on Sunday the Frenchman was back to his very best, sealing gold in an overall time of 24:45.4 minutes.

Having notched up 107.9 points for his ski jumping exploits, Lamy Chappuis began the cross-country race in 11th place and 42 seconds behind half-way leader Haavard Klemetsen of Norway.

But the Frenchman was in inspired form in the cross-country, posting the second-fastest time of the field – 24.03.4 – to romp to gold, a full 15 seconds ahead of Austria’s Bernhard Gruber, who was lying second after the ski jump, but fell away as the race ensued.

There was a similar story for Tomas Slavic of Czech Republic who was second behind Klemetsen after the jump but again fell away to end with bronze while Watabe could only manage 18th spot.

That means that Lamy Chappuis took his overall points tally to 1163, with Watabe trailing on 925 with only five events of the season remaining.