Finland’s Matti Heikkinen wins 15K cross-country skiing race for 1st World Cup victory

Heikkinen wins 15K cross-country World Cup race

DAVOS, Switzerland — Matti Heikkinen of Finland won a 15-kilometer freestyle race on Saturday to claim his first cross-country skiing World Cup victory.

Heikkinen completed the course in 35 minutes, 54.8 seconds to beat Marcus Hellner of Sweden, who was 14.4 seconds back. Maurice Manificat came third, one of five Frenchmen to place in the top eight.

Kris Freeman of the United States finished strongly to place seventh.

Earlier, Irina Khazova of Russia won a 10K freestyle race by more than 27 seconds to top the women’s World Cup standings. Khazova got her first career World Cup victory after missing the past two seasons while serving a doping ban for using a masking agent.