Majdic and Kjoelstad win Kuusamo Sprint

Sun, Dec  2, 2007 - By FIS

Petra Majdic from Slovenia and the Norwegian Johan Kjoelstad won the today's classical Sprint in Kuusamo/Ruka.

For the 27-year old Majdic, it was the fourth World Cup victory and the second victory in Kuusamo after the victory last year in the same type of race. She finished clearly ahead of Astrid Jacobsen (NOR, 1.9) while the third pace was taken by Alena Prochazkova (SVK; 4.9), who made the first podium place for a women Cross-Country skier of Slovakia since the independence of that country. Also in the final skied the young Natalia Matveeva (4th), Madoka Natsumi (JPN, 5th) and Evgenia Shapovalova (RUS, 6th).

Marit Bjoergen is still in the lead of the overall World cup, 62 points ahead of Natalia Matveeva and 88 points ahead of Petra Majdic. In the Sprint World Cup, Natalia Matveeva (150 points) is in the lead followed by Marit Bjoergen (112 points) and Petra Majdic (100 points).

After an exciting race on the challenging classical sprint course, Johan Kjoelstad claimed his second World Cup victory. On the second place finished Emil Joensson (SWE), who made with that his second podium place ever in his career. The third place took the Swedish Mats Larsson. The additional places in the A-final were taken by Andrew Newell (USA, 4th), Nikita Kriukov (RUS, 5th) and the 22-year old Kalle Lassila (FIN, 6th).

In the overall World Cup is in the lead Johan Kjoelstad, the winner of the today's race, but just 19 points ahead of Bjoern Lind (SWE) and 24 points ahead of Axel Teichmann (GER), who missed the Finales today. In the Sprint World Cup, Johan Kjoelstad (124 points) and Bjoern Lind (109 points) are on position one and two while Josef Wenzl (100 points), who is injured, is on third place.
The next competitions will be on Sunday, 2nd of December, Individual start 10 km C (ladies) and 15 km C (men) in Kuusamo.