Finn Haagen Krogh leads Norway to dramatic cross country sprint finish
BySportsbeat
Updated 18/12/2016 at 16:17 GMT
Finn Haagen Krogh ensured slow and steady was not to win the race as another impressive sprint saw Norway take men’s cross country skiing World Cup honours for the second time in the weekend.
Finn Haagen Krogh.
Image credit: Eurosport
After Saturday's victory, Krogh bolstered the anchor leg in La Crusaz, having to pull out all the stops to edge out Sergey Ustiugov and Russia to win by just 0.2 seconds in France.
Composed of Didrik Toenseth, Martin Johnsrud, Anders Gloeersen and Krogh, Norway stopped the clock in 1:11:25.7, with Gloeersen’s third leg proving a highlight, wrestling back the advantage after Russia had flown out the blocks.
And it was France who rounded off the top three on home snow, finishing a further seven seconds back for their first World Cup relay podium since 2008 – which also came at La Crusaz.
"It was a great day for our team," said France's Maurice Manificat, joined on the podium by Jean Marc Gaillard, Alexis Jeannerod and Clement Parisse. "Everybody did an awesome job on their legs.
"I knew Finn and Sergey would be the biggest opponents today on the last leg. My plan was to ski with them and eventually go away.
"Finn and Sergey were stronger but it is great to finish on the podium."
That victory reaffirmed Norway's place atop the Nations Cup, with both the male and female teams boasting success among their field to move to 4226 points.
Sweden are the nearest challenger, back on 2000, while Finland round off the top three a further 138 behind.
Krogh said: "Anders did a great job on his leg and put us back in contention.
"In my leg I wanted to save some energy and gave everything in the last corner and in the finish stretch."
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