After reigning world champion Ola Vigen Hattestad withdrew on the morning of the race with a sore throat, Norway's Oeystein Pettersen stepped in at the 11th hour to partner Northug, who came home in a time of 19min 01.0sec. Germany took the silver at 1.3sec behind and Russia earned their bronze at 1.5sec back, but there was heartbreak for Canada who finished fourth after being in contention for much of the race and finished at 6.3sec back.
But the day belonged to Norway and it was World Cup leader Northug who blitzed the opposition on the last leg.Germany's pairing of Axel Teichmann and Tim Tscharnke had fought their way up from sixth after the first leg and Teichmann took a sizeable lead into the sixth and final leg. On the last hill, Teichmann was chased down by Russia's Alexey Pettukov in second before Northug turned on the pace to make a decisive charge for gold.
The 24-year-old sailed past the Russian and then asserted himself by leaving the German in his path on the final approach into the stadium to win gold for Norway.This was Northug's second sprint medal of the Games after he took bronze in the individual competition.
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