The home favourite got stronger as the race went on at the Vuokatti Sport Biathlon Stadium, significantly extending his lead in the closing stages.

Anttola led from the 2.6km checkpoint and did not look back.

In the end, his time of 21min 8.7sec was more than 20 seconds quicker than that of second-placed Niclas Steiger of Switzerland, who crossed the finish line in 21:29.3.

Sweden's Elias Danielsson took bronze in 21:33.3, with Switzerland's Fabrizio Albasini more than 11 seconds further back in fourth.

The girls' 7.5km freestyle also featured a convincing margin of victory for race winner Lisa Eriksson.

She led a Swedish one-two, with her time of 20:46.9 coming in at 30.2 seconds clear of Tove Ericsson.

The race for bronze proved much closer, with six athletes all finishing within 10 seconds of each other.

A superb effort from Charlotte Böhme of Germany from 5.4km to 6.5km helped her to climb from eighth to third going into the closing stages, but she peaked just too soon and had to settle for fifth in 21:39.2.

Gino Rio of Andorra came within one second of the country's first ever medal at the winter edition of the Festival, but fell just short to Italy's Nadine Laurent, who clocked 21:38.2.

Cross-country skiing action is due to continue tomorrow in the classic style with the girls' 5km and boys' 7.5km races.

Today's results put Finland top of the medals table at the Vuokatti 2022 Winter EYOF with two golds.

The Netherlands, Italy and Sweden have all won one apiece.