China had one more gold from the 10 titles on offer while Russia collect three more on Friday, chasing closely against the host at the medal tally of the Harbin Winter Universiade. With the last three golds to be offered on Saturday, China held a temporary lead as both teams had an identical 17 golds, and the host only edged over Russia on the number of silvers (18-12).

Of its 17 golds, Russia had 10 from the cross country skiing, a clean sweep in the sport, six from biathlon and one from snowboarding, and is in great shape to stand atop of the tally at the end of the Universiade as two of the last three golds were from the biathlon mass start events.

On the penultimate day, Russia collected the last two titles in the cross country skiing in Yabuli, another venue some 200km away.

Artem Zhmurko clocked one hour, 27 minutes and 0.7 seconds for the men's 30 kilometers classical while Marina Chernousova led a Russian domination of top four places in the women's 15 kilometers race.

Petr Novak of the Czech Republic got the silver and IIya Mashkovof Russia had the bronze.

In the women's action, Chernousova notched up a winning time of 48 minutes and 2.3 seconds, edging silver medal winner Julia Ivanova by one second. Yulia Tchekaleva and Olga Kuziukova finished third and fourth respectively.

As the cross-country lowered its curtain, Russia collected a total of ten golds, five silvers and seven bronzes. Japan was a distant second with two silvers while Ukraine and the Czech Republic each took home one silver and one bronze.

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