Joensson, Follis take ski sprint races

Emil Joensson of Sweden and Arianna Follis of Italy won cross-country skiing World Cup sprint races on Saturday.

Joensson won in a photo-finish ahead of Fulvio Scola of Italy and Oeystein Pettersen of Norway.

Follis beat Kikkan Randall of the United States and Vesna Fabjan of Slovenia on the course along the Rhine River.

Meanwhile, Canada's Chandra Crawford celebrated a small victory, finishing eighth in the skate-ski sprint race for her best World Cup result in nearly two years.

"That result absolutely feels great," said Crawford, a 2006 Olympic gold medallist. "It has been a long time since I've been in the top-10."

The past couple of seasons, Crawford has battled through ankle injuries and a change of coaches.

"Now that everything is getting back to normal, it feels great to be able to start to perform again," she said.

Daria Gaiazova of Banff, Alta., was the only other Canadian woman racing, qualifying for the round of 30.

All four Canadian men came up short in qualifying for the heats. Stefan Kuhn of Canmore, Alta., was the top Canadian in 33rd. Toronto's Len Valjas was 34th, Phil Widmer of Banff, Alta., was 53rd and Brent McMurty of Calgary finished 56th.