Therese Johaug of Norway has won her 5th consecutive World Cup distance competition. It is the first time she has ever accomplished this. Once before she won 5 in a row from March to December but never in just one season and all before Christmas. Her victory today in the ladies' 10 km classic interval start race was her 25th World Cup distance win. She is now tied with Bente Skari for fourth on the all-time list. Only Marit Bjørgen (53), Elena Välbe (44) and Justyna Kowalczyk (34) have more. Johaug also now has 68 World Cup podiums in distance races which ties her with Justyna Kowalczyk (68). Elena Välbe (79) and Marit Bjørgen (94) are the only two with more.

On the podium with Johaug was Finland's Krista Parmakoski in second place +28.2 behind the winning time of 27:22.4. For Parmakoski it was her first individual World Cup podium since 5 January 2013 in Val di Fiemme in the 10 km classic mass start during the Tour de Ski. In third place was Norway's Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg +40.1 off Johaug's winning pace. This was the 5th individual podium for Oestberg and her 6th in total this season (team relay in Lillehammer), which includes four straight podiums in Davos and Toblach.

Aside from Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland in 8th and Switzerland's Seraina Boner in 15th it was an all Scandinavian top 15 with 5 Finns, 4 Swedes and 4 Norwegians taking up 13 of the places.

ATHLETE QUOTES

Therese Johaug, NOR
I don’t think I have ever been in such a good shape in my life. Watching Martin win and my victory has been a nice Christmas gift. I am looking forward to going home for some days.

Krista Parmakoski, FIN
I am so excited to be on the podium. I have been waiting for this moment since the beginning of the season. I knew the energy and shape was there but until today I did not show in the result. The whole Finnish team was amazing today.

Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, NOR
It was very tight and great battle between me, Krista and Heidi. I lost a lot at the end of the race. I am really satisfied with 3rd place. The season has been so great for me. I nearly cannot believe it. I’m so happy that things have worked so well for me.

OFFICIAL RESULTS - Toblach, Italy

Ladies' 10 km C - Interval start

1. JOHAUG Therese NOR 27:22.4
2. PARMAKOSKI Krista FIN +28.2
3. OESTBERG Ingvild Flugstad NOR +40.1
4. WENG Heidi NOR +45.2
5. KALLA Charlotte SWE +50.2

Source: fis-ski.com