February 24, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins took a dominant historic win in a nail-biting performance in the women’s 6×1.2km Team Sprint at the 2013 FIS Nordic World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy on Sunday. Diggins put in an incredible final leg after losing her pole up a climb while leading and had a brief panic attack. But she held her composure while skiing over 100 meters with only one pole in what looked like a disaster for the Americans. Luckily she received an over-sized pole from US coach Erik Flora and kept her pace up.

In fact, the Minnesota skier was so fired up she extended her lead handing off to Randall with a nice advantage as the Sprint Cup leader skied the final leg with poise and strength, powering home with a sizeable winning margin of over 7 seconds to take the GOLD ahead of the Swedish duo of Charlotte Kalla and Ida Ingemarsdotter. It’s the first career Team Sprint World Championship medal for both Randall and Diggins and the second Worlds medal for Randall who took silver in the individual freestyle sprint in 2009 in Liberec, CZE.

Finland took home the bronze over Norway following a disastrous fall by Ingvild Oestberg on her last lap, creating a deficit too large for her teammate Falla to regain and contend for the podium.

Full results HERE.
Full Results w/splits HERE.