Efimov was the only skier to break the 42 second barrier on their first run at the Funpark Bobrovy Log All Season Sports and Entertainment Park.

He achieved a time of 41.89sec to put him in pole position to secure the title.

France's Baptiste Silvestre proved to be his nearest challenger as he finished 0.24 seconds off the pace after the first run.

The Frenchman sought to put pressure on the home favourite in the second run.

The effort backfired as Silvestre skied out, leaving him out of medal contention and giving Efimov a large margin of error for his final run down the course.

Efimov recorded the third quickest of the second run times, which saw him finish with a combined time of 1min 27.14sec.

Austria's Richard Leitgeb clinched the silver medal with his time of 1:28.08 proving 0.94 seconds slower than the winner.

France's Paco Rassat rounded off the podium places in 1:28.36.

There was disappointment for Japan as their skiers Yohei Koyama and Hayata Wakatuski ended in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Russia's Alisa Zhambalova rounded off her cross-country schedule in familiar fashion as she sealed her fourth gold medal.

Zhambalova battled her team-mates in the closing stages of the women's 15 kilometre mass start competition.

She sealed victory by crossing the line in a time of 38:39.8.

Ekaterina Smirnova ended just 1.1 seconds behind the gold medallist to secure the silver.

Russia's fifth clean sweep in seven individual cross-country events was sealed by Yana Kirpichenko, who won the bronze in 38:45.4.

Further Russian success appears inevitable with the men's 30km mass start concluding cross-country action tomorrow.