Asiago, Italy, 15 December 2004 — Norwegians Jens-Arne Svartedal and Marit Bjoergen won their respective men’s and women’s World Cup classic style cross country sprints over 1.2 kilometers in Asiago yesterday.

Bjoergen celebrated her sixth victory of the season, coming home in 2 minutes 41.3 seconds to extend her lead in the overall standings.

Finland’s Virpi Kuitunen finished second, 2.1 seconds behind Bjoergen, with Norway’s Ella Gjoemle third, 3.8 seconds adrift of her compatriot.

Bjoergen now has 610 points after seven races, followed by Kristina Smigun of Estonia on 340 and the Czech Republic’s Katerina Neumannova on 247 points.

In the men’s race, Svartedal won in a time of 2 minutes 20.0 seconds, beating compatriot Tor-Arne Hetland into second place by nine tenths of a second.

Sweden’s Bjoern Lind finished third, 2.6 seconds adrift of Svartedal.

World Cup leader Axel Teichmann went out in the semi-final stages but his ninth place finish means the German moves on to 412 points from seven races, thus extending his overall lead.

Hetland is now second with 269 points with France’s Vincent Vittoz third on 198 points.