The team of Karolin Ohlsson, Emil Svensk, Jonas Leandersson and Helena Jansson led for the majority of the race through the varied urban and parkland terrain in the centre of Turku.

They crossed the line first in a time of 53 minutes and 15 seconds.

Switzerland's Sabine Hauswirth, Florian Howald, Martin Hubmann and Elena Roos finished in silver medal position.

Crossing the line 13 seconds behind their Swedish opponents, they posted a time of 53.28.

Cat Taylor, Peter Hodkinson, Ralph Street and Tessa Strain of Britain completed the top three way behind in 54.28.

Action is due to continue tomorrow with the sprint event.

Qualification will take place in the morning before finals later on.

The opening World Cup event coincided with the second World Orienteering Day (WOD).

WOD gives local orienteering clubs an opportunity to grow their membership and expose more people to the sport through work with schools, local organisations and sport authorities.

The IOF has said their aim is to attract primarily young people to partake in orienteering for the first time in their life.

Last year's inaugural WOD was marked by the IOF opening their new headquarters in Karlstad in Sweden.

The governing body had decided in 2015, as part of its strategic plan, to close its offices in Helsinki and relocate to Karlstad.

It was estimated that more than 200,000 people in over 2,000 locations in 79 countries took part in last year's WOD.