Marit Bjoergen reaches 50th victory milestone

Feb 4, 2012, 14:11 GMT

Rybinsk, Russia - Marit Bjoergen became the first cross-country skier to win 50 World Cup races when she dominated a 10km mass start event on Saturday.

Bjoergen's milestone came after Devon Kershaw became the second Canadian man to top a men's race.

The three-time Olympic and eight-times world champion Bjoergen won in 26 minutes 43.9 seconds, edging Sweden's Charlotte Kalla by 4.1 seconds. Marthe Kristoffersen of Norway was third, 19.4 seconds off the pace.

No other cross-country skier has been as successful in the World Cup as Bjoergen, with compatriot Bjoern Dahlie the best man on 46 victories and Russian Elena Vaelbe the formerly best women with 45 victories.

Bjoergen, 31, moved ahead of Polish rival Justyna Kowalczyk in the World Cup standings again with 1,598 points to the 1,575 of Kowalczyk who came seventh on Saturday.

Kershaw pipped local hope Ilia Chernousov and Tobias Angerer of Germany for first place in the men's 15km race 36:47.5 minutes as the top three were separated by just 1.6 seconds in freezing conditions.

Kershaw, 29, had come third twice this season before his biggest World Cup success, and also has one third place from 2006.

The only other Canadian winner on the men's side is Pierre Harvey, who topped three races in 1987 and 1988. Beckie Scott and Chandra Crawford are Canadian women's race winners.

World Cup leader Dario Cologna of Switzerland (1,474 points) did not make the trip to Russia where double pursuit races are scheduled for Sunday.

In other action, Mikko Kokslien and Magnus Moan came from behind to win a Nordic combined team event in Val di Fiemme, Italy, beating the French duo of Maxime Laheurte and World Cup leader Jason Lamy Chappuis by 9.6 seconds after one round of ski-jumping and a 2x7.5km cross-country portion.

Large hill ski-jumping was scheduled for later Saturday in Val di Fiemme.