GALLIVARE, Sweden (AP) — Marcus Hellner won a two-man sprint Sunday to give Sweden the win in the season’s first cross-country World Cup relay, and Marit Bjoergen anchored a dominant Norway team to victory in the women’s race.
Hellner followed up his win in Saturday’s 15-kilometer freestyle race by pulling away from Alexander Legkov of Russia on the final straightaway. Sweden finished the 4x10K relay in 1 hour, 29 minutes, 56.3 seconds, beating Russia by 0.8 seconds.
Norway was third, 47.9 second back.
Earlier, Bjoergen set off on the last leg with an 18-second lead over Norway 2 and Sweden and pulled away even more to finish in 50:16.0.
Sweden was 26.8 seconds back, with Italy taking third 56.2 seconds back.