Lampic and Retivykh take first wins of season at Olympic test event

The World Cup in South Korea is acting as the test event for next year's Olympic Games, and led to a pair of surprising winners in the sprints.

Slovenia's Lampic had not finished higher than 15th in her three World Cup events so far this season, but won the 1.4km race by 1.60s from Norway's Silje Oeyre Slind.

Lampic qualified only tenth fastest from the first round, and finished second in her quarter-final before going on to win her semi-final.

And she was too fast for her five competitors in the final, with America's Ida Sargent taking the final spot on the podium, 1.79s behind the winner.

Maiken Caspersen Falla still leads the sprint standings, 152 points ahead of Sweden's Stina Nilsson with a total of 270, while Lampic moved up to eighth overall – while Heidi Weng continues to lead the overall standings.

Like Lampic, Retivykh had not had a stellar season so far, his best result a tenth place finish in Davos, but he came through the rounds to beat Norway's Sondre Turvoll Fossly by 0.30s in Korea.

Russia's Andrey Parfenov completed the podium placings, taking third in a photo-finish with Canada's Len Valjas by just 0.01s.

Retivykh set the sixth fastest qualifying time in the first round, before winning his semi-final but only finishing third in the semi-final and scraping through to the final showdown.

The win moves him up to eighth in the sprint standings, which are still led by Italy's Federico Pellegrino, ahead of Norway's Sindre Bjoernestad Skar, while his compatriot Martin Johnsrud Sundby continues to hold a commanding lead in the overall competition.

Racing continues on Saturday with skiathlon events in Pyeongchang.