March 17, 2008 (Bormio/St. Caterina) – The winners of the final weekend in Bormio/St. Caterina are Virpi Kuitunen and Vincent Vittoz from France. Kuitunen won also her second overall World Cup title, while Lukas Bauer fixed his first overall World Cup victory already 1.5 weeks ago. In the final free technique 10km handicap start race of the three-day World Cup Final, Virpi Kuitunen claimed victory in a sprint 0.3 seconds ahead of Justyna Kowalczyk (POL). Claudia Nystad (GER), 39,6 seconds behind the winner.

Kowalczyk attacked from the start and took over Kuitunen after 1 km. Kuitunen was at the second intermediate point at 6.9 km on the top of the hill already 15 seconds behind but recovered to fight for the victory on the finish straight.

With this victory, Kuitunen won also the overall World Cup – for the second time after the season 2007/2008. Astrid Jacobsen (NOR) took second, 297 points behind Kuitunen. Justyna Kowalczyk is third with 456 points behind Kuitunen.

The overall distance World Cup was also won by Virpi Kuitunen with 729 points, just ahead of Valentina Shevchenko (UKR, 707 points) and Justyna Kowalczyk (661 points).

The winner of the sprint World Cup is for the first time Petra Majdic (SLO) with 609 points. With this victory, she won the first globe for the Cross-Country team of Slovenia. On second place is Astrid Jacobsen (570 points) and Virpi Kuitunen third (538 points).

The men’s World Cup Final, with the last competition over 15 km in the free technique, was won by French Vincent Vittoz clearly 1:10,2 minutes ahead of the overall World Cup winner Lukas Bauer (CZE). The home favorite Giorgio di Centa took third place in the finish sprint on this challenging course, 1:58,5 minutes behind the winner. For Vittoz it was the first World Cup victory this season after being fourth twice in the World Cup competitions.

The overall World Cup was clearly won by the Czech Lukas Bauer with 1462 points. On second place follows the German René Sommerfeldt (829 points) while Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer took the third place (783 points).

Lukas Bauer was also the best in the distance World Cup ranking with 986 points ahead of Pietro Piller Cottrer with 516 points and René Sommerfeldt with 494 points.

Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway celebrated his first overall sprint World Cup title. He won only 2 points ahead of Emil Joensson (SWE) and 129 points ahead of his teammate John Kristian Dahl.

The Norwegians were the strongest team in this season, they won the Nations Cup (ladies & men together) and also the individual rankings – the Team Cups for the ladies and the team cup of the men’s.

Results

Women

1. Virpi Kuitunen (Fin) 30:28.1
2. Justyna Kowalczyk (Pol) 30:28.4
3. Claudia Nystad (Ger) 31:07.7
4. Valentina Shevchenko (Ukr) 31:30.6
5. Marianna Longa (Ita) 31:42.2

Men

1. Vincent Vittoz (Fra) 40:19.5
2. Lukas Bauer (Cze) 41:29.7
3. Giorgio di Centa (Ita) 42:18.0
4. Pietro Piller Cottrer (Ita) 42:18.4
5. Sami Jauhojaevi (Fin) 42:18.5

23. Devon Kershaw (Can) 45:13.2

Full results Women
Full results Men

Final Overall Men
Final Overall Women