Therese Johaug returns to Oslo with resounding World Cup win

The three-time Olympic medallist was banned from competing for 18 months after testing positive for performance-enhancing drug Clostebol and sitting out a career-defining 2018 Olympics.

Since returning to the scene at the start of the season, she's scooped ten World Cup medals and her dominance was unbridled as she claimed 30km victory by a huge margin in Oslo.

"It’s really special – the last two years I've trained so much in these tracks and had a lot of hard moments out there," said the 30-year-old.

"I know the tracks really well but it was amazing, there were so many people around the track supporting.

"The coaches gave me some information that I was a lot of seconds in front of the rest.

"But I just focus on myself, to have fun out there, to look up and see all the people cheering at me. It means a lot in my heart."

Johaug earned victory by an incredible 1:45.9s, with her next closest challengers Natalya Nepryayeva and Ebba Andersson getting nowhere near her winning time of 1:18.54.5s.

The win extends a remarkable run that has seen Norway as a nation win the last 15 30km starts – the last time a non-Norwegian won over the distance was at the 2010 Olympics.

Legendary eight-time Olympic champion Marit Bjorgen is the only athlete who holds more Cross-Country World Cup stage victories than Johaug, who overtook Bjorn Daehlie to sit second with 45 gold medals.