October 23, 2005 – For the fourth consecutive year, Sweden’s Peter Larsson won the season-opening World Cup cross country sprint alongside the Rhine River Saturday while Marit Bjoergen of Norway won the women’s race for the second year in a row. In the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle final, Larsson edged Norway’s Tore Arne Hetland in a photo finish while Bjoergen pulled to an early lead on the 800-meter women’s course and held off Aino Kaisa Saarinen of Finland.