Canada X-C: Germans dominate, Kris Freeman leads Americans in 23rd{mosimage}VERNON, B.C. -- American Kris Freeman finished 23rd Saturday in a World Cup 30-kilometer (15km CL + 15km FR) pursuit race at Sovereign Lake Nordic Center, while German men took the top five places as the cross-country World Cup tour returned to North America for the first time since 2001.

Tobias Angerer won in 1 hour, 17 minutes, 19.2 seconds, with defending World Cup champion Axel Teichmann runner-up in 1:17.20.2. Freeman finished in 1:17.42.1, with his older brother, Justin, 43rd, U.S. pursuit champion Andrew Johnson 44th and James Southam 48th as the lone Americans in the top 50.

The women were to race a 15km (7.5km + 7.5km) pursuit later in the day as the cross-country World Cup returned to Canada for the first time since 1995 at the World Championships in Thunder Bay, Ont., when the World Championships still were World Cup races, too. These are the first in Canada or United States since the pre-Olympic races at Soldier Hollow, Utah, in 2001.

- Courtesy USSA News Bureau