Oh, Canada, what have you done?

The Canadian men upset the hosting Norwegians for the gold medal today (March 2) at the World Ski Championships in Oslo in the team cross country sprint.

The team of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey edged the heavily favored Norwegians Petter Northug and Ola Vigen Hattestad for the gold, with Harvey out-sprinting Hattestad through the customary fog to the finish. It marked the first ever Nordic world title for Canada. Russia got the bronze powering past Finland in the final lap.

Harvey said, “We're really, really happy the way the race unfold for us... we both were in really good shape our skis were running good.”

And while it was Harvey who was left to out-sprint the Norwegian to the finish, it was Kershaw who put him into position to make the final charge. Kerhsaw explained what happened in his final leg: “Sami (Jauhojaervi of Finland) was so, so strong,” said Kershaw. “He just jumped me and I didn't react fast enough. I tried to get back on him, but just as I realized that he had gained perhaps a little too much, right then Petter Northug (of Norway) attacked me, and I just slid right into his slip stream, and followed him through the exchange because I knew... he was going to work so, so hard to catch the Finnish guy, Jauhojaervi, up front. I thought it was the perfect position to put Alex, because he was right behind Ola Hattedstad. Hattestad did all the work and Alex had that monster finish and now we're World Champs, so it's awesome.”

Sweden took an all Scandinavia women's team gold a little more than three seconds ahead of Finland with hosting Norway - minus triple gold medalist Marit Bjoergen - picking up the bronze. Olympic 10-k champion Charlotte Kalla kicked into high gear at the start of the final lap and held off the Finnish squad of Aino Kaisa Saarinen and Krista Lahtennmaki.

Canada's Perianne Jones and Daria Gaiazova finished sixth and Sadie Bjornsen and Kikkan Randall of the U.S. ninth. The U.S. men's team - Torin Koos and Andy Newell - finished tenth.

Under the team sprint format each team member skied three times on a 1.3k (women) or 1.5k (men) course. The men's field included 26 teams from 13 nations and the women's field 16 teams.