Falun, Sweden - Claudia Nystad and Axel Teichmann won the prologue races for Germany at the cross-country skiing World Cup finals on Friday.

Nystad won the women's freestyle race over 2.5 kilometres in 7 minutes 12.5 seconds from Sweden's Charlotte Kalla (2.7 seconds behind) and two-time world champion Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland (3.0 seconds).

World Cup leader Petra Majdic of Slovenia came fifth and retained the lead in the finals series on 9:07.8 minutes from Wednesday's sprint in Stockholm and Friday's race, with a double pursuit race to follow Saturday and a pursuit finale on Sunday. Kalla is 7.1 seconds behind and Kowalczyk 11.5.

Majdic tops the World Cup with 1,567 points from Kowalczyk (1,476) and three-time world champion Aino-Kaisa Saarinen of Finland (1,365).

The winner of the finals series gets 200 points and each stage win is worth 50 points.

The men's title race is closer as leading Norwegian three-time world champion Petter Northug and Swiss Tour de Ski winner Dario Cologna are separated by just 20 points, 1,042 to 1,022 points.

Teichmann is out of contention in fourth place but that didn't stop him from winning Friday's 3.5km stage in 8:33.1 minutes ahead of Cologna (0.2) and Czech Martin Koukal (5.3).

John Kristian Dahl of Norway is the World Cup finals leader on 10:13.8 minutes, with Cologna second (14.8)) and Russia's Nikita Kriukov third (22.5).

Northug lags 38.8 seconds behind in 12th place, but has 35km left on Saturday and Sunday to pass Cologna again. (dpa)