Peterson, Kowalczyk win World Cup sprint races

MOSCOW (AP) - Teodor Peterson of Sweden and Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland won freestyle sprint events Thursday at a cross-country skiing World Cup city meet.

Peterson clocked 3 minutes, 8.4 seconds to beat Anders Gloeersen of Norway by 0.1 seconds in the final on a 1.5-kilometer course near the Luzhniki stadium sports complex just six kilometers west of the Kremlin.

Canadian Devon Kershaw, who dominated his quarterfinal and semifinal heats, finished 0.6 seconds back for third.

Defending World Cup champion Kowalczyk won the women's event in 3 minutes, 39.9 seconds for her fourth straight victory. The Russian duo of Natalia Korosteleva and Anastasia Dotsenko were 0.1 and 0.2 seconds behind for second and third respectively.

"I'm really happy I've won this race," Kowalczyk said. "But conditions were really tough."

Temperatures in Moscow fell to - 17 degrees Celisus (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday.

Kowalczyk overtook Marit Bjoergen at the top of the overall World Cup standings after 24 races. The Norwegian, who is skipping events in Russia because of the cold, is 38 points behind. Men's overall leader Dario Cologna of Switzerland is also not competing.

Kikkan Randall of the United States, who missed out on the final heat by 0.1 seconds in the semifinals, remained top of the sprint World Cup standings by 109 points from Natalia Matveeva of Russia after nine races. Kowalczyk is next, a further 38 points back.

With his first win this season, Peterson moved into the top 10 in the overall standings and overtook Alexey Petukhov of Russia to be No. 1 in the sprint after nine races. Petukhov is 37 points behind. Cologna is 86 back from Peterson.

The World Cup continues with freestyle mass start and skiathlon races this weekend in Demino, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Moscow.