Dario Cologna showed again to be allround skier. After yesterday's second place in 15 km Classic the defending World Cup winner dominated today's sprint free.
Cologna claimed victory ahead of qualification winner Nikolay Morilov (RUS) and Anders Gloeersen (NOR). It was the first victory of Dario Cologna in a sprint. The Swiss top skiers seems ready for the Tour de Ski.
Only 24 hours after the second place in Saturday's 15 km Classic Mass Start Cologna scored third best qualification time. The Swiss made it clearly all the way up to the finals where he met four Norwegians and qualification winner Nikolay Morilov of Russia.
Cologna showed his dominance in the climb towards the stadium and came unchallenged in the finish to score his first sprint World Cup victory. Petter Northug skipped today's sprint and Cologna came closer to the Norwegian in the overall World Cup standings to 92 points.
Dario Cologna SUI
It was a great day. It's my first sprint victory. It looks like I'm in good shape now in the right moment before Tour de Ski. It was a very good weekend and I'm looking forward to Tour de Ski. My goal is to win it for the third time. I will go home and relax little bit enjoy Christmas and do some training. It's nice to have other Swiss skiers in the tope 30. It is good for summer training. It's good for the whole team.
Nikolay Morilov RUS
I like the course in Rogla, it is long and I prefer to go only one round and not two as in Davos. Dario Cologna was faster today than me. I'm not so fast now because last year I was training with distance specialists. Maybe next time I will be faster. I'm going to Moscow to celebrate Christmas and then I will take part in Tour de Ski. If I get good results and I am in good shape I will ski the whole Tour.
Anders Gloeersen NOR
I was feeling very good today and in the last weeks too. I was more lucky than in competitions before. I am happy I showed I was still in a good shape. I'm focused on the Sprint World Cup. I want to ski as many races as possible. Today it was a good step in the right direction.
