FALUN, Sweden (AP) - Sweden’s Stina Nilsson and Federico Pellegrino of Italy won the women’s and men’s 1.4-kilometer sprint events in the cross-country skiing World Cup on Saturday.
Nilsson won in 3 minutes, 24 seconds, beating Maiken Caspersen Falla of Norway by one-hundredth of a second in a photo finish.
“It was so close and it was very icy,” Nilsson said. “I’m so glad that I had one-hundredth of a second in my advantage.”
Norwegian Heidi Weng was third, 1.88 seconds behind Nilsson, and continues to lead the overall women’s World Cup standings.
Nilsson has been on good form - with six of her nine career World Cup wins coming this season - but had never before won a race in her home country.
Saturday’s race also underlined Nilsson’s status as a sprint freestyle specialist, having now won five of the last 11 such events in the World Cup over the last three seasons.
Pellegrino took his first season victory in 2:45.77, beating two Norwegians - Emil Iversen was 0.06 behind and Sindre Bjoernestad Skar a further 0.41 back.
It was the Italian’s first World Cup win of a difficult season after seven sprint freestyle victories in 2015-16.
“This season is not so easy right now for me but I think I’m going the right way,” Pellegrino said.
Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby continues to lead the men’s World Cup standings.
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