The host nation did not have to wait long for their first success as Alexey Chervotkin claimed the men's individual 15 kilometres cross-country skiing title in a time of 34 min 41.2sec.

France clinched both silver and bronze thanks to Damien Tarantola and Paul Goalabre.

Russia then swept three of the four biathlon titles on offer on the first day in Sochi, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Maxim Tsvetkov took the men's 10km indvidual sprint honours in a time of 27:01.3 as he crossed the line in front of Bulgarian duo Vladimir Iliev and Krasimir Anev, who claimed silver and bronze respectively.

Tsvetkov also spearheaded the men's team, which included Matvey Eliseev and Sergey Klyachin, to the gold medal as they comfortably beat Austria, while Italy came through to seal the third spot on the podium.

Tatiana Akimova, Uliana Kaisheva and Galina Nechkasova triumphed in the women's team event in a combined 1hr 10min 38.2sec, with France earning silver and China taking bronze.

Russia also monopolised the team cross-country skiing events, winning both the men's and women's competitions.

Hongzhi Xu of China won the men's 500m short track speed skating race in a time of 42.065sec, beating team-mate Shuai Yang to the title.

Denis Ayrapetyan added to the Russian haul as he did enough for bronze.

China were denied a second gold in short track speed skating as Arianna Fontana of Italy pipped Yang Yang by clocking 43.989.

Eugenia Zakharova finished in bronze medal position.

Twenty-five countries have sent teams to the Russian Black Sea resort, to compete across seven sports.

These are Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, short track speed skating, ski mountaineering, sport climbing and ski orienteering.

Many of the same venues which were used at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games will be utilised.

Winter sport heavyweights like Canada, Norway and United States will be among the absentees in Sochi, despite all being CISM members.