The quartet of Yulia Stupek, Natalia Nepryaeva, Tatiana Sorina and Veronika Stepanova claimed victory at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in a time of 53min 41sec.

Coming into the final leg, Germany had a narrow advantage over the ROC team, before Stepanova produced a strong leg to move clear of her rivals and give the ROC quartet victory by 18.2 seconds.

The first-leg skier Stupek claimed a third Olympic medal with this triumph in Beijing, adding to bronzes at Pyeongchang in 2018 in the women’s 4x5km relay and the women’s individual sprint.

Her best World Championship performance came at Oberstdorf in 2021 when she won a silver as part of the women’s 4x5km relay.

Stupek has contested three individual cross-country events at Beijing 2022, with her best performance a seventh-place finish in the women’s 10km classic.

For second-leg skier Nepryaeva this is her second medal at Beijing 2022, following a silver in the women’s 15km skiathlon.

Nepryaeva was also part of the quartet that won bronze in Pyeongchang 2018 in the same discipline, as well as World Championship silver in this event at Oberstdorf in 2021.

For third-leg skier Sorina the triumph is her first Olympic medal, with the 27-year-old also part of the quartet that won silver at the World Championships last year.

Sorina’s best World Cup performance so far this season came as part of the 4x5km relay team at Lillehammer in December 2021.

She is coached by her husband Egor Sorin, who is also a cross-country skier, and the pair are affectionately known as a glamour couple of ski sport in Russia.

For final-leg skier Stepanova this is also her first Olympic medal.

The 21-year-old’s best World Cup performance this season came as part of the 4x5km relay team that won gold at Lillehammer.

Stepanova was introduced to skiing at the age of seven and joined the national cross-country skiing team in the summer of 2021.

Speaking after the race, Sorina said: "I did not expect that Germany would be there together with us, so I wanted to create a better situation for Veronika.

"I managed to create a gap between the Swedes and the Norwegians, so I was sure that Veronika would be able to do her best and earn gold."

Stepanova added: "I was warming up and I was already calculating that the first leg would be ordinary and then we would have to solve the problem.

"We decided to follow the coach's plan and everything worked out."