Alexandersson, who triumphed in yesterday's women's long-distance race, powered round the 3.84 kilometres course in 14min 36sec to take victory by a margin of 28 seconds.

Fellow Swede Magdalena Olsson and Russia's Mariya Kechkina were within a couple of seconds of each other fighting for the silver medal, but it was the former who was faster in 15:04.

In an exciting finish to the 4.35km men's sprint event, the gold medal was shared by Russia's Sergey Gorlanov and Sweden's Erik Rost.

Rost set a new best time of 15:35 for the last group of starters to try to match.

Pushing hard in his dash to the finish, Gorlanov collapsed over the line in the exact same time.

Russia's Eduard Khrennikov belied his 45 years of age to take the bronze medal in 15:44, one second over compatriot Vladislav Kiselev.

Following a rest day tomorrow, competition is due to resume on Saturday (March 23) with the men's and women's mass start middle-distance races.