Bjoergen, Kriukov win gold in individual sprint at Nordic worlds

Norway's Marit Bjoergen also won the individual sprint world title in 2003 and '11.

GRZEGORZ MOMOT/EPA/Landov

VAL DI FIEMME, Italy (AP) -- Marit Bjoergen of Norway won the third individual sprint world title of her career and Nikita Kriukov of Russia matched his Olympic gold at the Nordic world championships on Thursday.

In the women's 1.2-kilometer classical event, Bjoergen finished in 3 minutes, 16.6 seconds. Ida Ingemarsdotter of Sweden was 2.3 seconds behind and Maiken Caspersen Falla of Norway won the bronze.

In the men's 1.5-kilometer event, Kriukov sealed the victory in 3:30.4. Petter Northug Jr. of Norway crossed 0.3 behind and Alex Harvey of Canada won the bronze.

Americans Kikkan Randall, Sophie Caldwell and Andy Newell qualified, but were knocked out in the quarterfinals.

"We've been in altitude for a long time now and maybe just haven't done quite enough of this really hard stuff," Randall said. "But I think today will be really good for Sunday."

The team event is Sunday.