German veterans beat Swedish youth in team sprint

Claudia Nystad and Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle will take experience over youth any time.

The veteran German duo showed Monday that even in cross-country skiing's most fast-paced event, young legs are no match for strategy and tactics.

The Germans let Sweden's Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag push the pace for most of the race before the 32-year-old Nystad pulled away from 23-year-old Haag shortly before the finish Monday to secure the gold medal in the women's cross-country team sprint at the Vancouver Olympics.

Nystad said the pair worked out their tactics ahead of the race with the help of their Norwegian coach Tor Arne Hetland _ a former Olympic sprint champion himself.

"He said to us how we can do this," Nystad said. "I don't know how, but it fit exactly."

Quite a return to form for Nystad and the 29-year-old Sachenbacher-Stehle, who have struggled the last two seasons and won their first Olympic gold since being part of Germany's winning relay team in Salt Lake City eight years ago.

"We never lost this dream, and we were always working on it," Nystad said. "It's amazing. You believe in this, and you work for this."

Nystad long has been considered one of the best sprinters on the women's circuit, and she went past the younger Haag as they entered the ski stadium for the final time and pulled away on the final sprint.

The German duo, who also teamed up to win a world championship silver in the same event in 2007, finished in 18 minutes, 3.7 seconds for the gold. The Swedes were 0.6 seconds behind for the silver medal, and Russian duo Irina Khazova and Natalia Korosteleva won bronze after coming in 4 seconds back.

It was the fourth Olympic medal for both Germans _ they also have two silvers each from previous games _ but Nystad hasn't been on a World Cup podium since 2008. Sachenbacher-Stehle went nearly three years without a World Cup win before taking a team sprint race in Rybinsk, Russia, in January.

"Sometimes, you don't always have the results you were expecting," Sachenbacher-Stehle said. "But you always train hard and do your best, and now we're having good results again."

The freestyle event features a relay with two members on every team taking turns going three laps each around a 1.4-kilometer course.

The 22-year-old Kalla, who won gold in the 10K freestyle race, said the Swedes also had their own tactics _ albeit more primitive.

"We tried to go as fast as possible from the start, because that's our strength, our endurance," Kalla said.

Sometimes, though, that's just not enough to beat experience.