Norway's Haga wins gold in women's 10km cross-country free skiing

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Ragnhild Haga of Norway won the gold medal in the women's 10km cross-country free skiing event Thursday at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.

Haga clocked a time of 25 minutes and 00.5 seconds for her first Olympic gold, while Sweden's Charlotte Kalla won her second medal at the Winter Olympics by finishing second in 25:20.8.

"When I started the last downhill, I was thinking that it was the most important race of my career. I grabbed this opportunity, Sure, I am very pleased with myself," Haga said.

"I have trained a lot on the 10km free of this year and I got a feeling that I had a good start I got feedback "I was so frightened of Kalla on the last round," added Haga.

Norway's legendary skier Mart Bjoergen and Krista Parmakoski of Finland had a time of 25 minutes and 32.4 seconds at Alpensia Cross-Country Centre.

"Marit is one of my idols when I was a young girl, so it's nice to be fighting together with her, it's a feeling that is so amazing," Parmakoski said.

The 37-year-old Bjoergen has won 12 Winter Olympic medals, moving with a compatriot Bjoern Daehlie for the most Olympic cross-country medals of all-time. She is one medal shy of matching the all-time record of 13, held by Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.