The Italian team of Lisa Vittozzi, Alexia Runggaldier, Dorothea Wierer and Federica Sanfilippo combined to win the first women’s relay event of the season.

A strong performance saw the quartet completed win the 4x6 kilometre relay competition in a time of 1 hour, 10min, 58.7sec.

Sweden finished as the runners-up with their team finishing eight seconds behind the winners.

Their second place was sealed by Hanna Oeberg, who sprinted past France’s Anais Bescond in the closing stages.

Bescond ensured France would claim the bronze medal, with their team ending three seconds behind Sweden.

Sweden would clinch victory in the men’s 4x7.5km competition, led by their Olympic silver medallist Sebastian Samuelsson, who produced a fine anchor leg.

He finished off strong work from Peppe Femling, Martin Ponsiluoma and Thorsten Stenersen to complete Sweden’s victory in a time of 1:16:10.5.

Norway crossed the line four seconds off the pace to finish as the runners-up.

There was a larger gap to third place, with Germany taking the bronze medal at 29 seconds behind the winning team.

Competition had been overshadowed, however, by an announcement from Austrian police that they are investigating five Russian athletes and five support staff for doping offences during last year's World Championships.