Mar 1, 2009, 14:58 GMT
Liberec, Czech Republic - Petter Northug of Norway became the king of the Nordic skiing world championships on Sunday when he claimed his third gold of the competition, in the 50-kilometres cross-country marathon.
Northug withstood an attack from German Tobias Angerer on the final climb as he gave Norway a third straight gold in the gruelling discipline in 1 hour 59 minutes 38.1 seconds.
Maxim Vylegzhanin of Russia also got ahead of Angerer to finish second 0.7 seconds behind Northug. Angerer placed third, 2.0 seconds off the pace, in the freestyle championship finale.
A large leader group of 25 was fighting for the title when Angerer made his move. Northug passed the German at the top of the hill and never looked back as he showed his deadly finish again.
'I had three races in Liberec and took three gold medals. I am very satisfied,' said Northug.
Angerer said: 'I tried to ski from the front in the last uphill. But then I was a little tired in the final downhill and didn't take enough risks. Petter was too strong.'
Northug's earlier titles in Liberec were in the 30km pursuit and the relay. The proud Nordic nation Norway topped the final medals table with five gold, four silver and three bronze medals from surprise team United States (4-1-1).
Northug matched Finnish cross-country skier Aino-Kaisa Saarinen on three Liberec golds, with Saarinen winning in the 10km, team sprint and relay, and also getting a pursuit bronze.
Compatriot Virpi Kuitunen (team sprint, relay), Norway's Ola Vigen Hattestad (sprint, team sprint), Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk (pursuit, 30km), American Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick (mass start, normal hill event) and Austrian ski-jumper Wolfgang Loitzl (normal hill, team) were double gold medallists.
Norway won all its golds in men's cross-country skiing. Saarinen was involved in all of Finland's three golds and the nation's cross-country men rebounded from the doping shame of 2001 with three bronze.
The US were the surprise of the championships, their six medals in 12 days beating the five medals the nation won at all previous worlds over 85 years.
They won three of four Nordic combined events (the other being Bill Demong in the large hill event) and the inaugural women's ski-jump from Lindsey Van, plus a bronze from Demong and a silver from sprint skier Kikkan Randall.
'This is fantastic. It is so important to us and a validation of our work,' said US Nordic ski team director John Farra.
Austria won the jumping team event and had a one-two from Wolfgang Loitzl and Gregor Schlierenzauer on the normal hill, but were highly unhappy when snowfall stopped the large hill event after one round as they finished outside the podium topped by Swiss Andreas Kuettel.
Estonian Andrus Veerpalu became the oldest world champion at age 38 with his 15km title and Japan returned to the top of the Nordic combined team event.
Germany missed a gold but had eight silvers and Angerer's bronze. Russia managed just two silvers and one gold while fancied Slovenian skier Petra Majdic and Nordic combined World Cup leader Anssi Koivuranta of Finland got no medal.
There was snow galore at this North Bohemian venue, and although the Czechs could only cheer a silver from skier Lukas Bauer, a total 170,000 tickets were sold for the 20 events.
Gian-Franco Kasper, head of the ruling ski body FIS, praised 'excellent organization' by the Czechs and was happy to report no drug cheat with around 1,000 tests carried out.
The next big event is the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The worlds move on to the Norwegian birthplace of Nordic skiing, Oslo's Holmenkollen, in 2011.
Kasper said the 2011 event 'will be the party of the century' and Northug vowed he wants to be 'as successful in Oslo as I was here.'
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