Norway wins opening stage of Lillehammer World Cup Mini Tour

Norway won both the men’s and women’s sprint event that opened the Lillehammer World Cup Mini Tour. Australians Phillip Bellingham (pictured) and Callum Watson finished 91^st and 108^th respectively.

24 year old Norwegian Paal Golberg proved unbeatable in his home town for the second year in a row. Golberg won the individual World Cup in Lillehammer last year and again proved too fast out sprinting Russian Alexey Petukhov who finished second and fellow Norwegian Finn Haagen Krogh who finished third.

In the women’s event Norway took the first four places with super star Marit Bjorgen notching up her 84^th World Cup win in front of Celine Brun-Lie in second place and Heidi Weng in third.

Australia was represented by two athletes Phillip Bellingham and Callum Watson. Phillip finished in 91^st place whilst Callum finished in 108^th. This was a solid results as both are in the middle of a heavy training block. For both boys this results is a great start to the season however I imagine both will be looking to move up the results list once their training backs off later in the season.

Results – Men

1. Paal Golberg, NOR, A-Final

2. Alexey Petukov, RUS, A-Final

3. Finn Haagen Krogh, NOR, A-Final

4. Juho Mikkonen, FIN, A-Final

5. Sergey Ustiugov, RUS, A-Final

91. Phillip Bellingham, AUS, qualifying

108. Callum Watson, AUS, qualifying

119 starters

Results – Women

1. Marit Bjorgen, NOR, A-Final

2. Celine Brun-Lie, NOR, A-Final

3. Heidi Weng, NOR, A-Final

4. Malken Caspersen Falla, NOR, A-Final

5. Katja Visnar, SLO, A-Final

96 starters

Full results as well as qualifying times are available on the FIS website, click on the Lillehammer World Cup link. http://www.fis-ski.com

Tonight’s stage is a 5/10km Freestyle and will be televised live on Eurosport from 8pm onwards.