Vetle Bergsvik Thorn, the men’s gold medallist, had kept Norway in the forefront of the action as he finished just three seconds behind first leg winner Adrien Briffod of Switzerland, who clocked a time  of 15min 42sec.

Norway remained in the mix as Jeanne Lehair powered Luxembourg into a lead on the second leg before Casper Stornes moved into the lead with just one leg remaining, eight seconds ahead of Spain and 13 ahead of Britain.

Løvseth maintained the iniative throughout the final leg, most closely followed by eventual silver medallist Sian Rainsley of Britain, with Marta Kropka making a late challenge to take bronze for Hungary.

The Norwegian team were bouncing up and down in anticipation as she moved inexorably towards the finish line, crossing it in 1hr 07min 29sec to spark much joy.

Rainsley brought Britain home four seconds behind, and Kropka finished 11sec behind the winner.

Løvseth described Kraków-Małopolska 2023 as an ideal taster of an Olympic Games.

"It has been a really cool event for me, both the results which was much better than I expected and the event itself and the atmosphere," she said.

"I think it is cool that it is very much focused on the nations, so I have been getting to know other Norwegian athletes from other sports, and just walk around the village. 

"It is very much the same as in the Olympic Games. 

"I have never been to an Olympic Games before, but I really hope to qualify for next year so in that way it is cool to try how it is this year and hopefully I will do it again next year in the Olympic Games."

Bernadette Szocs adorned her already impressive European Games table tennis record as she won the deciding singles match to earn Romania a 3-2 win over Germany in the women’s team event after the Germans had come back from 2-0 down.

At the 2019 Minsk Games Szocs picked up silver in the mixed doubles and team event.

At this edition of the Games she had already won mixed doubles bronze and gold in the singles, and the second gold arrived with her defeat of Nina Mittelham - after which she climbed onto the table and screamed with joy.

Dmitri Ovtcharov beat Anton Kallberg 3-0 to secure Germany's men's table tennis team gold by a 3-1 score over Sweden.

Ovtcharov, 34, thus earned a third consecutive Games gold after his individual triumph in 2015 and team win four years ago in Belarus.

Bulgaria's Gabriela Stoeva and her younger sister Stefani, three-times European champions in women's doubles badminton, added a second European Games title to their collection as they won the title eight years after becoming the initial winners at the Baku Games of 2015.

The Stoevas - Gabriela is older by a year at 28 - defeated Debora Jille and Cheryl Seinen of The Netherlands 21-7, 21-17 to regain their Games title.

Denmark's silver medallists four years ago in Minsk, Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Kim Astrup, took one more step up the podium four years on after a stupendous match against Britain's Ben Lane and Sean Vendy.

After the Danes took the first game, the Brits levelled and then came from behind to reach 19-19 in the third before the more experience pairing found the way to win.

Hungary’s world women’s doubles champions in teqball, Lea Vasas and Zsanett Janicsek, proved too strong for the Romanian pairing of individual European Games champion Kinga Barabasi and Katalin Dako, earning gold by a score of 2-1.

It was the second gold here for Vasas after her success in yesterday's mixed doubles

Earlier the home pairing of Alicja Bartnicka and Ewa Kaminska had beaten the French team of individual silver medallist Amelie Julian and Elisa Lanche 2-0 to earn bronze.

Spain won the first-ever women's beach soccer tournament at the European Games on penalties against Ukraine.

Anastasiia Klipachenko was the only player who missed in the shoot-out as she struck the post, and Spain’s Adriana Manau found the net with the decisive penalty to earn a 5-3 victory.

Poland won bronze after Dominika Dewicka saved all three Portuguese penalties to help them triumph 3-0 in the shoot-out.

Switzerland secured a 5-2 win against Italy to win gold in the men's beach soccer event.

The men's bronze went to Spain, who beat Portugal 2-0 in a shoot-out after a 5-5 draw.

Home athlete Dawid Kubacki, secured the final title of the ski jump competition, employing plastic and synthetics rather than snow, as he earned victory in the men’s large hill event with 279.1 points.

The 33-year-old Beijing 2022 bronze medallist and 2019 world champion in the men’s normal hill, headed Austria’s Jan Hoerl, who scored 273, and Philipp Raimund, who earned bronze with 271.8.

Georgia earned the sole judo title on offer at these Games as they secured a 4-1 win over Germany in the mixed team final.

Olympic silver medallist Guram Tushishvili won by ippon against Erik Abramov in the men's over-90-kilograms, and Eteri Liparteliani thrashed Seija Ballhaus in the women's under-57kg contest.

Three-time Olympic medallist Lasha Shavdatuashvili trounced Jano Rübo 11-0 in the men's under-73kg, but Miriam Butkereit kept Germany's hopes alive in the women's under-70kg against Eter Askilashvili.

They were dashed in the men's under-90kg by Olympic champion Lasha Bekauri, who edged out Martin Matijass to seal victory for Georgia.

Olympic champions France were without some of their main stars and lost their bronze medal match 4-1 to The Netherlands, with Italy collecting the other bronze with a 4-0 win over Portugal.

Italy extended their lead at the top of the medals table with an eighth shooting triumph of the Games.

Yesterday's women's individual winner Jessica Rossi and four-time Olympic medallist Giovanni Pellielo overcame Britain's Matthew Coward-Holley and Lucy Hall 6-4 in the mixed team trap final in Wrocław.

There was also an Italian bronze in this event for Giulia Grassia and men's individual champion Mauro De Filippis.

They beat Finland's Jukka Laakso and Noora Elina Antikainen 6-4.

France have dominated the men's team 25m rapid fire pistol final for another shooting sport gold at the expense of the Czech Republic.

Clément Bessaguet won the individual gold yesterday, and combined with Yan Chesnel and the Olympic champion Jean Quiquampoix to beat their opponents Martin Podhráský, Matej Rampula and Martin Strnad 16-2.

The bronze medal match featured a dominant victory for Italy, who overcame Ukraine 16-4.