August 6, 2008 (Sandnes, Nor) – In the last two weeks, two invitational races for Cross-Country skiers took place in Norway. On 25th -26th July the traditional BLINKfestivalen with a freestyle – and sprint roller ski race were carried out together with biathlon events in Sandnes (NOR). In total, top athletes from five different nations were on the starting list of the Cross-Country show competitions which were covered by NRK, Norwegian Television. But at the end, the national hero Marit Bjoergen made the double and won both races while on the men’s side her team mates Oeystein Pettersen and Bjoerre Naess claimed victory in the free technique- respectively in the sprint race – all the results are here.

From August 1-2, numerous World Cup athletes from Finland, France, Germany, Sweden and Norway competed in the “Toppidrettsveka (Top sport week) in Aure (NOR), the host city of the 2011 FIS Roller Skiing World Championships. The 2008 Toppidrettsveka consisted of various competition formats, like mountain biking, freestyle roller skiing sprint, 3000m running in the town and a handicap roller skiing race.

In a superior manner, Marit Bjoergen won the ladies overall ranking ahead of the strong sprinter Pirjo Muranen (FIN) and Ida Ingemarsdotter from Sweden. Oeystein Pettersen seems pretty strong too this summer. He claimed victory ahead of his team mates Tor Arne Hetland and Petter Northug. The best foreign athlete was Mathias Fredriksson from Sweden in fourth position. Please click here for the results.