Earlier in the day, Swedens Sundling made the most of the slim lead provided to her by team mate Maja Dahlqvist in bright sunshine and warm conditions as she entered the last lap under pressure from Russias Natalya Nepryayeva. The 32-year-old wasted no time increasing the gap, eventually cruising to a dominant victory by a margin of 30 seconds to claim her 11th World Championship cross-country gold, while Karlsson held off Andersson in a sprint finish to take the silver. Faehndrich and Laurien van der Graaff took an unexpected silver medal for Switzerland 0.95 seconds behind the Swedes, with Eva Urevc and Anamarija Lampic coming in 2.51 seconds later to secure the bronze. However, Johaug reeled her in with a powerful performance on the uphill parts of the course and came out of the switch from classic to freestyle skis at the halfway point with a lead of 4.3 seconds over Andersson. Finlands Joni Maki also managed to pass Retivykh on the final stretch to claim the silver medal for Finland, 0.41 seconds ahead of the Russians.
The gold also won by an arguably illegal amount of time.
( z0 win :ARG0 ( z1 gold ) :extent ( z2 amount :ARG1-of ( z3 legal :ARG1-of ( z4 argue :ARG1-of ( z5 possible ) ) :polarity - ) ) :mod ( z6 also ) )
(z0 / win-01
    :ARG0 (z1 / gold)
    :extent (z2 / amount
                :ARG1-of (z3 / legal-02
                             :ARG1-of (z4 / argue-01
                                          :ARG1-of (z5 / possible-01))
                             :polarity -))
    :mod (z6 / also))
The gold also won by an arguably illegal amount of time .
z0 :mod z6
z0 :ARG0 z1
z4 :ARG1-of z5
z3 :polarity 0
z3 :ARG1-of z4
z2 :ARG1-of z3
z0 :extent z2