Poltoranin, Weng win mass start races in Tour de Ski

By AP
Published

VAL DI FIEMME, Italy (AP) Alexey Poltoranin of Kazakhstan secured a narrow victory in the sixth and penultimate stage of the Tour de Ski for his first win of the season on Saturday. Norwegian Heidi Weng won the women's race.

Poltoranin beat Andrey Larkov of Russia by just four hundredths of a second to win the 15-kilometer classic event in Val di Fiemme.

Alex Harvey of Canada was third, 0.9 seconds behind Poltoranin, for his first podium finish of the season.

Dario Cologna finished fourth but the Swiss skier extended his lead in the Tour de Ski to 1 minute, 14.4 seconds. Poltoranin moved up to second, ahead of Sergey Ustiugov.

Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg still leads the women's standings but has seen her advantage slashed from 57 seconds over Weng to just 1.8 after her rival won the 10-kilometer race.

Weng finished 7.6 seconds ahead of Krista Parmakoski of Finland and 8.6 ahead of Teresa Stadlober of Austria.

Oestberg was fifth, 35.2 seconds slower than Weng.