Norway began the men’s event as defending champions with Pyeongchang 2018 gold medallist Johannes Høsflot Klæbo this time lining up with Erik Valnes.

The duo faced a battle with Finland and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team during the event, with less than a second separating the three teams heading into the final exchange.

Klæbo produced a strong final leg to open up enough of a gap to secure the gold medal, crossing the line in a winning time of 19min 22.9sec.

Finland’s Iivo Niskanen and Joni Mäki finished as the silver medallists, with the pair ending 2.5sec behind the Olympic champions.

Alexander Bolshunov and Alexander Terentyev of the ROC earned bronze at 4.3 down.

"I'm really proud, it's special to do this together as a team," said Klæbo, who now has two gold, one silver and a bronze medal at Beijing 2022.

"We won the team sprint in 2018, and doing it in a different way now, different style, with a different person, it's special.

"To do it as a team, it's something we have been working really hard for.

"We have been training together for a couple of years now and it's an amazing feeling."

Germany’s Katharina Hennig and Victoria Carl emerged as the winners of a close women’s team sprint event, which saw the lead change hands on multiple occasions.

The German team were locked in a final sprint with Sweden and the ROC to determine the line-up on the podium.

Carl crossed the line narrowly ahead to win gold in 22:09.85.

Just 0.17sec separated Germany from second-placed Sweden, with Maja Dahlqvist and Jonna Sundling winning the silver medal.

Bronze was claimed by the ROC’s Yulia Stupak and Natalya Nepryayeva, who finished 0.71 behind the winners.