The Russian women's team won the 3x5km cross country skiing relay race today ©Almaty 2017

Russia enjoyed a sensational day in the cross-country skiing relay races as both their men's and women's teams took gold medals here at the Winter Universiade. 

The women's 3x5 kilometres team were first to clinch victory at the Alatau Cross-Country Skiing & Biathlon Complex before the men's 4x7.5km line-up secured the double.

Despite having a narrow lead following the second exchange, the Russian team of Lilia Vasilieva, Olga Repnitsyna and Anna Nechaevskaya dominated the closing stages of their event, racing 52.1 seconds clear to cross the line in 42min 25.1sec.

Hosts Kazakhstan took second in 43:17.2 while France completed the podium with their time of 44:11.2.

The Russian men's team then followed their success by winning this afternoon's 4x7.5km race.

The Russian women came home in front of hosts Kazakhstan and France ©Almaty 2017
The Russian women came home in front of hosts Kazakhstan and France ©Almaty 2017

Egor Berezin, Valeriy Gontar, Kirill Vichuzhanin and Dmitriy Rostovtsev crossed the finish line first in a time of 1:12:49.3, to ensure the double.

They trailed in the early stages of the race to Kazakhstan and Ukraine at the first exchange, before briefly leading at the second.

Kazakhstan battled hard and regained the lead following the third and final exchange.

Russia proved too strong in the closing stages, though, and consigned Kazakhstan to second in 1:12:51.1.

The Czech Republic completed the podium with a time of 1:14:51.8.