Petter Northug wins men’s 50km at x-country ski worlds; Canada's Alex Harvey 5th

Petter Northug won his fourth gold medal of the Nordic skiing world championships, using his trademark sprinting ability to win a four-way race to the finish in the men's 50-kilometre cross-country race in Falun, Sweden.

Northug entered the final straight a few metres behind Czech veteran Lukas Bauer and Maxim Vylegzhanin of Russia but passed them with powerful double-poling to win in two hours 26 minutes 2.1 seconds. The 37-year-old Bauer surprisingly took silver while defending champion Johan Olsson of Sweden passed a tiring Vylegzhanin in the final meters to take bronze.

Canada’s Alex Harvey fought through the falling snow on hill Falun track, finishing fifth in 2:26:08.1 in a field of 45, one week after the 26-year-old became the country's first cross-country skier to win two medals at a world championship.

"It might have been the slowest fifty kilometre race in modern history," said Harvey of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., in a statement released by Cross Country Canada. "I felt good on the skis and I didn't want [eventual third-place finisher Johan] Olsson to break away. I used a lot of energy going with him and I should have read the situation better. I used up way too much energy early on and paid for it in the end."

It is Northug's 13th career world championship gold, having also won the individual and team sprint in Falun along with the 4x10K relay with Norway.

Last Sunday, Harvey edged Norway's Didrik Toenseth in a sprint for the bronze in the 30-kilometre skiathlon, finishing in a time of 1:16:27.5. 

Two days earlier, Harvey won silver medal in the men’s sprint at the Nordic ski world championships.

Other Canadian results on Sunday:

• Graeme Killick, 19th, 2:27:46.2
• Ivan Babikov, 30th, 2:29:50.5

For the 26-year-old Killick, who was 28th at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, it was the race of his life in a national team uniform.

"I was hoping for another top-30 and just wanted to hang in there and not cramp up," said the native of Fort McMurray, Alta. "The skis were incredible. They put me in a good position at the start, and I didn't have to work as hard on a lot of the climbs. It was really good."