ROUNDUP: Cologna and Roponen win double pursuit races

Cologna and Roponen win double pursuit races Falun, Sweden  - Dario Cologna of Switzerland won the men's double pursuit over 10 kilometres in the Nordic ski World Cup finals in Falun on Saturday.

Marcus Hellner of Sweden clinched second place ahead of Tobias Angerer of Germany.

The women's double pursuit over 5 kilometres went to Riitta-Liisa Roponen of Finland.

Cologna boosted his chances of winning the overall World Cup with victory in the classic and freestyle techniques in 54 minutes 59.5 seconds. Hellner was 1.7 seconds behind, with Angerer 2.4 seconds back.

After three of the four events in the finals, Cologna has a 58.2-second lead on Alexander Legkov of Russia, with Vincent Vittoz of France third, 1:06.5 behind.

Roponen posted 29 minutes 24.7 seconds to win the women's event, 1.3 seconds up on Therese Johaug of Norway, with Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland, 4.2 seconds behind Roponen in third place.

Kowalcyzk leads after three of the four races in the finals, 48.6 seconds ahead of Anna Olsson of Sweden, and 56.2 seconds up on Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle of Germany.

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

The international ski federation FIS has meanwhile suspended Austrian cross-country skier Christian Hoffmann for 14 days after irregularities in a blood test.

A five-day ban was also imposed on Sergei Dolidovich of Belarus following a raised haemoglobin level. (dpa)

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