March 23, 2009 (Trondheim, Norway) – More than 14,500 skiers competed on Saturday in the 2009 edition of the historic Norwegian Birkebeiner – a record for the event. Norwegian great Hilde G. Pedersen won the women’s 54km race ahead of Sandra Hansson of Sweden. In the overall FIS Marathon Cup standings Jenny Hansson won the overall while Pedersen tied with Sandra Hansson for second place with 360 pts but was officially given 2nd overall as a result of her win in the final marathon event.

Swedish skier Jerry Ahrlin won the men’s race just 26 seconds ahead of Anders Aukland of Norway. Despite the win in the final event Arhlin finished 21 pts behind Italian Marco Cattaneo in the overall cup standings.

Full results coming soon.

Results (brief)

Men
1. Jerry Ahrlin (Swe) 2:36.58
2. Anders Aukland (Nor) 2:37.24
3. Stanislav Rezac (Cze) 2:38.00

Women
1. Hilde G. Pedersen (Nor) 3:05.00
2. Sandra Hansson (Nor) 3:07.21
3. Jenny Hansson (Swe) 3:15.57

FIS Marathon Cup final overall ranking men:

Men
1. Marco Cattaneo (Ita) 535
2. Jerry Ahrlin (Swe) 504
3. Stanislav Rezac (Cze) 348

Women
1. Jenny Hansson (Swe) 518
2. Hilde G. Pedersen (Nor) 360
3. Sandra Hansson (Swe) 360