Boe brothers fire Norway to World Cup relay gold

While he and his brother Tarjei took gold and silver respectively in the 10km sprint earlier in the competition, both had missed out on the podium in the largely French-dominated 20km individual event.

Keen to make amends on the team stage alongside Johannes Dale and Erlend Bjontegaard, just 8.4 seconds split the Norwegians from their French rivals at the end of the third leg.

But Johannes Thingnes sealed victory in emphatic style, crossing the line more than 30 seconds clear of Martin Fourcade in a finishing time of 1:10.30.4.

The French quartet of Emilien Jacquelin, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Simon Desthieux and Fourcade finished almost a minute ahead of Lukas Hofer, Thomas Bormolini, Daniele Cappellari and Dominik Windisch in third, with the Italians completing the podium.

Johannes Thingnes Boe said: "After the individual event we asked ourselves what we did wrong and what we needed to do to show our better side today in the relay.

"We knew the biggest fight would be with France and we saw that in the end. We got the victory which is what we wanted and it was a good way to finish this World Cup here in Ostersund."

Sportsbeat 2019