Kazakhstan's Slovona wins first gold of the 2015 Winter Universiade

Making the most of the excellent race conditions, Slovona, a 24-year-old sport and tourism student at the University of Almaty, dominated the 1.4km race to take the gold medal ahead of Ewelina Marcisz of Poland (silver) and Russia's Svetlana Nikolaeva (bronze).

With Almaty hosting the 28th Winter Universiade in 2017, Slovona's victory for Kazakhstan was a fitting way to get the first phase of this year's competition under way in the Slovakian ski resort.

Slovona's time of 3 minutes 22.75 seconds was 18 seconds faster than Marcisz and 42 seconds clear of third-place Nikolaeva.

Debutant Slovona praised the "great" atmosphere at Štrbské Pleso as she looked ahead for further success later in the games. "It was essential for me to have good time after qualification and then to run as fast as to finish first," she said.

"From the beginning, my strategy was to run behind girls, then to overrun them to get to the leading position, which I have done. I am very satisfied, because this was my first Universiade. I hope that I will be successful also in other disciplines, because I would like to win everything."

Victory in the men's cross country skiing sprint went to Andrey Larkov, who topped an impressive all-Russian podium. Larkov, a physical education student at the University of Kazan, beat fellow teammates Anton Gafarov (silver) and Raul Shakirzianov (Bronze) in the final to underline Russia's strength in depth the men's cross country disciplines.

Larkov won the 1.6km race in a time of 3 minutes 22.4 seconds, 18 seconds clear of Gafarov and 1:23 clear of Shakirzianov, winner of four medals at the 2013 Winter Universiade two years ago.

Elsewhere, in Osrblie, a village in the region of Banská Bystrica, Ukraine's Dmytro Rusinov defied challenging race conditions to win the men's 20km race in biathlon ahead of Russian duo Vadim Filimonov and Jurij Šopin.

Outside Osrblie's superb new multi-purpose national biathlon venue, Rusinov finished 22.6 seconds ahead of Filimonov and 1:25.2 ahead of Sopin to take the gold medal.

In the women's 15km race victory went to Alina Raiková of Kazakhstan, with Russia's Jekaterina Avvakumova taking silver and local star Paulina Fialková securing a memorable bronze for the host nation, Slovakia.

Raiková finished in a time of 47:29.4 - nine seconds ahead of Avvakumova and 41.7 seconds clear of Fialková. "I never expected such a good opening result. To win the gold medal now gives me hunger for more success," said Raiková.

Slovakia's Fialková said her result was "fantastic" but admitted she had let herself down with her shooting. "Despite the bronze medal, I am a disappointed about my hesitation in the shooting range. But I will now try and win more medals," she said.

The 2015 Winter Universiade continues on Monday with medals up for grabs in the cross country skiing mixed team sprint and Nordic combined individual Gundersen event.