The pair were in blistering form over the 8.1-kilometres course in the cross-country skiing mixed team sprint classic.

They never fell below fourth place and then held the lead from the 3.5km mark until the finish at the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex.

Sobue powered through the final leg without looking back before a beaming smile could be seen on her face as she ensured the pair clocked in with a winning time of 20min 42.85sec.

A fierce battle for second place took place further behind between the United States and Norway.

Norway's Andreas Kirkeng flew out of the gate to establish a convincing six-second lead in the first quarter of the race.

His compatriot Karianne Olsvik was hunted down almost instantly which saw them drop to sixth place.

Eventually the duo found some consistency but could not hold on to second place as Dengerud looked as if she had given her all before finishing with 20:55.61.

After battling neck-and-neck for the final segment, America's Renae Anderson managed to get the better of her counterpart to clinch silver with team-mate Finn Sweet.

Following promising performances in the semi-finals, Finland's two teams finished disappointingly.

Verneri Poikonen and Hilla Niemela set the quickest pace of the preliminary round with 20:15.81 on the clock but could only muster up a seventh-place finish.

Juha Nurmi and Tiia Olkkonen were 18.98 off the pace as they claimed fifth, despite finishing second in their semi-final.

Italy also looked to be a different team than the one that were victorious in the second semi-final.

They got up to second at one point courtesy of Maria Eugenia Boccardi but then stagnated in the latter stages and could not move up from sixth position.

Russia had won three of the last four editions of the mixed team sprint classic at the Winter World University Games.

They also won nine of a possible 11 cross-country gold medals at Krasnoyarsk 2019, but their ban due to the invasion of Ukraine leaves the door open for another nation to assert their dominance.

Cross-country skiing is due to continue on Sunday (January 15) as two more gold medals are set to be won in the men's and women's sprint free finals.

Haruka Kasai led a Japanese podium sweep in the women's individual Nordic combined Gundersen.

She recorded a jump of 114.0 to put one hand on the gold medal before sealing it with an overall time of 14:34.6 before her twin sister Yuna clocked in after 15:23.4.

Ayane Miyazaki then completed the feat with a 16:42.5-finish.

Sakutaro Kobayashi finalised the Japanese hat-trick by pocketing the men's Gundersen gold after 24:52.2.

Niklas Malacinski of the United States and Finland's Rasmus Ahtava took second and third with respective times of 26:28.6 and 26:35.2.

Alpine skiing was supposed to take place at Whiteface Mountain but poor weather conditions forced a postponement to tomorrow.

Over at Gore Mountain, Swiss rider Sophie Hediger surged to gold in the women's snowboard cross big final.

The French duo of Chloe Passerat and Kim Martinez then picked up silver and bronze, respectively, before their compatriot Benjamin Gattaz benefitted from a crash to take the men's bronze.

His team-mate Quentin Sodogas slipped out of control midway down the slope and fell to the back of the pack as Czech Republic's Jakub Zerava and Leon Beckhaus made up the top three.