Follis wins sprint gold

| Wed, 02/25/2009 - 03:21

Italy's Arianna Follis won the women's cross-country sprint at the Nordic world championships Tuesday, becoming only the second Italian woman to win an individual Nordic gold.

Follis, 31, beat America's Kikkan Randall and Finland's Pirijo Muranen on this Czech course.

Long-distance star Stefania Belmondo, 40, is the only other Italian woman to win a world individual gold - in fact she picked up five of them.

She got a couple in 1993, one in 1997, and two more in 1999.

Belmondo also won two Olympic golds, at Albertville in 1992 and Salt Lake City in 2002.

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