Norway end Germany's team dominance with sprint victory
BySportsbeat
Published 14/01/2017 at 16:21 GMT
Norway clinched team sprint victory at the World Cup in Val di Fiemme on Saturday to end Germany's domination and become only the second country to climb to the top of the podium this season.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The win saw Espen Andersen make his maiden appearance atop the World Cup podium alongside teammate Joergen Graabak as they crossed the line in a total time of 35:02.4.
They edged out Czech team Tomas Portyk and Miroslav Dvorak in a sprint to the finish, taking the gold medal by just 0.3 seconds, with Italy's Alessandro Pittin and Samuel Costa taking the remaining podium spot, 0.9 seconds behind.
Norway had trailed in second at the intermediate stage, with the German team of Terence Weber and Fabian Riessle holding a five second advantage going into the cross-country thanks to a 130.5m jump from the former.
But in the final finish line sprint, Graabak made the most of his middle lane to take the victory by centimetres.
Germany continue to lead the overall Nations Cup on 3175 points after 11 meets, with Norway second on 1470 and Austria third, 16 points behind.
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