WHISTLER, British Columbia, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Norway's Petter Northug, who had been suffering through a disappointing Olympics, held off his rivals Monday to win the cross-country team sprint.
Northug and teammate Oeystein Pettersen won the first gold medal for the Norwegian men's cross-country team at the Vancouver Games.
The women's team sprint was won by the German duo of Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad. It was the seventh gold of the Olympics for Germany, tying that country with the United States for the top spot in the medal standings.
Both the men's and women's finishes were dramatic, as is usually the case in an event that sees two teammates ski three laps each in a six-lap race. It takes about three minutes to finish a lap.
With two laps to go in the men's race, nine of the 10 teams in the final were within two seconds of each other.
Over the final leg, however, it developed into a three-team race and Northug was able to outsprint Alex Teichmann of Germany by 1.3 seconds. Teichmann and Tim Tscharnke collected the silver medal.
The bronze went to Nikolay Morilov and Alexey Petukhov of Russia. Petukhov, skiing the final lap, finished just .2 of a second behind Teichmann.
The United States wound up ninth after finishing second in its semifinal heat.
Northug won a bronze in the individual sprint earlier in the Games, but had been expected to challenge for gold in every event he entered.
In the women's race, Nystad crossed the finish line .6 of a second in front of Sweden's Anna Haag.
Hagg and Charlotte Kalla made up the Swedish team and they both had won medals earlier in the Olympics. Kalla won the 10-kilometer freestyle race and Haag finished second in the 15-kilometer pursuit.
The Russian team of Irina Khazova and Natalia Korosteleva finished third.
