Pellegrino caps of fine weekend in team sprint victory

The 27-year-old was able to pull away from the chasing pack on the final small climb to finish with a time of 12:18.31 as he and teammate Dietmar Noeckler stood at the top of the podium.

There was a dramatic finish for second place as Swedish veteran duo Emil Joensson and Teodor Peterson held off Russia's Andrey Krasnov and Gleb Retivykh.

Russia won the previous team sprint in PyeongChang last year and Retivykh declared it was good to be back in the podium places after finishing 26th in the individual competition yesterday.

He said: "I was really upset on Saturday about my performance. I wanted to do better in the team sprint.

"We were able to maintain in the leading group and before the final sprint I was in a good position. Federico was again strong but it feels great to be on the podium."

It has been a superb two days for Pellegrino who followed up his victory in the individual competition on Saturday with the triumph in the team sprint.

"I had space again on the small hill. I took it. It is great to win with Didi," the Italian said.

Sportsbeat 2018