Kuusamo XC: Newell sprints to top-five result

KUUSAMO, Finland — Andy Newell produced his first top-five finish of the season Saturday, finishing fourth in a 1.2-kilometer classic sprint with Torin Koos 22nd. Kikkan Randall was 16th in the women's 1.2K race.
KUUSAMO, Finland — Andy Newell produced his first top-five finish of the season Saturday, finishing fourth in a 1.2-kilometer classic sprint with Torin Koos 22nd. Kikkan Randall was 16th in the women's 1.2K race.
     Johan Kjolstad and Petra Majdic won Saturday's races. Kjolstad, the only Norwegian in the six-man A final, beat Swedish duo Emil Jonsson and Mats Larsson. Last year, Norway swept the first five placings on the same track.   
    Jens Arne Svartedal, last year's winner and current world champion, did not even qualify from the time test, placing 31st.   
    Another Norwegian, world championship bronze medalist Eldar Ronning, fell in the first qualifying heat, and Sweden's Olympic champion Bjorn Lind overturned in the semifinal.
    Kjolstad took the lead after three events in the overall standings with 124 points. Lind is second with 112 and Germans Josef Wenzl and Axel Teichmann are tied for third at 100.
    Majdic was superior with her power skiing uphill on the toughest sprint course on the circuit. The Slovenian beat world champion Astrid Jacobsen of Norway by about 25 meters. Alena Prohazkova of Slovakia was a surprise third.
    Marit Bjorgen of Norway, a former two-time overall champion, was eighth but kept her overall lead with 212 points. Fourth-placed Natalia Matveeva of Russia has 150 points in second place, followed by Majdic, 124, and Jacobsen, 120.

    — The Assdociated Press