Norwegian skier Tiril Udnes Weng won the cross-country skiing World Cup for the first time in her career after finishing third in the sprint at the Lahti Winter Center in Finland.
It is the first Grand Crystal Globe for 26-year-old Tiril Udnes Weng, who continues Norway’s dominance of the sport.
The women’s sprint was won by another Norwegian, Kristine Stavas Skistad, in 3:08.63 hours, her third consecutive sprint victory and fifth this season. But these successes were not enough to prevent Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist from conquering the small globe in the discipline.
Kristine Stavas Skistad was 13 hundredths of a second faster than Jonna Sundling (Sweden) after catching her just before the finish line. Tiril Udnes Weng was 6:55 sec behind, but her third place was enough for the World Cup. She triumphed in the general ranking over American Jessie Diggins, who was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Tiril Udnes Weng is the twin of fellow cross-country skier Lotta Udnes Weng and third cousin of former two-time champion Heidi Weng.
Maja Dahlqvist finished fourth and overtook Switzerland’s Nadine Fahndrich in the sprint standings.
Tiril Udnes Weng has an insurmountable lead in the overall standings of 1,983 points. In second place with 1,829 points is Jessie Diggins, and Kerttu Niskanen (Finland) came in third position with 1,730 points.
The men’s and women’s 20km mass starts bring the season to a close on Sunday.
