The 22-year-old scored 229.6 points after landing 91.5 metres and 95.5m jumps to surprise favourite Sara Takanashi of Japan, although the World Cup leader did record the longest jump of the day and set a hill record with 102m in the first round.

However, a jump of just 86m on her second attempt pushed her down into third with a score of 218.3 and helped hand Lundby the gold.

Austria’s Daniela IIraschko-Stolz finished second after recording jumps of 96m and 92m, scoring 224.1 overall.

After being confirmed as the winner, Lundby expressed her delight.

“I’m very happy today,” she said.

“This was my dream and my goal for many years.

“I didn’t expect to win after the first round, but my second jump was really good.”

Despite her setback, Takanashi remains top of the World Cup leaderboard on 260 points, 50 in front of her compatriot Yuki Ito, who came fourth in Russia.

In the Men’s World Cup, Slovenian Domen Prevc claimed his third success of the 2016-2017 season as the teenager topped the podium in Lillehammer.

The 17-year-old recorded jumps of 142.5m and 141.5 on his way to scoring 301.2, putting him 10.3 ahead of Norway’s Daniel Andre Tande, who reached 136m in the first round and then 137.5m.

Third place went to Stefan Kraft who finished on 286.5 after jumps of 137m and 135.5m.

“It went really well for me today and I’m very satisfied with my jumps,” Prevc said.

“The conditions were good and it was the same for all the competitors today.”

Prevc has 320 points at the top of the World Cup leaderboard, 62 ahead of Tande and 92 in front of Germany’s Severin Freund.

The competitions continue in Nizhny Tagil and Lillehammer tomorrow.