2010
17
Mar
Cross-country skiing: Northug wins men’s 50km gold – AFP News : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics
Whistler (AFP) - Norway's Petter Northug won the men's 50km cross-country skiing gold on Sunday, beating Germany's Axel Teichmann in a two-up sprint to the line.
Teichmann ended with silver and Johan Olsson of Sweden took the bronze.
Northug's second gold of the Games, after his victory in the team sprint event, came after a thrilling end to the two-hour nordic epic.
After most of the field had been left trailing by a lead group of 20 skiers Teichmann upped the pace in the final kilometre.
That took a further toll on the chasing bunch and when they sighted the stadium on the final descent, the German was soon in everyone's sights.
Northug, the overall World Cup leader, pushed hard on his poles to pull level with Teichmann as they raced around the final bend.
And the Norwegian carried that momentum over the next 100 metres to the finish line where he beat Teichmann by just 0.3sec. Olsson was third at 1.0sec.
Northug now has four medals from the Vancouver Winter Games.
After a slow start to his campaign, the 24-year-old won bronze in the individual sprint and gold in the team sprint after leaving his rivals for dead on the final hill.
He then anchored the Norway team to a second place finish in the 4x10km relay on Wednesday.
jd/mp