Olympics-Cross-country skiing-Haga storms to freestyle gold for Norway

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By Philip O'Connor

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A stunning second lap by Norway's Ragnhild Haga propelled her to Olympic gold in the women's 10km freestyle race in a time of 25:00.5 on Thursday.

Charlotte Kalla of Sweden took the silver, more than 20 seconds behind while Marit Bjoergen of Norway and Finn Krista Parmakoski tied for the bronze medal.

Kalla, who won the women's skiathlon on Saturday, began the race as odds-on favourite and started powerfully, immediately taking the lead from Bjoergen at the first split time.

The 30-year-old Swede looked on course to win her second and Sweden's third women's cross-country gold of the Games, but Haga, who is ninth in the overall World Cup standings, had other plans.

She accelerated away on the second lap, building up a huge lead over Bjoergen as she passed the 8.4-kilometre split and kept up the pace all the way to the finish line.

Kalla, who won gold in this event in Vancouver in 2010, tried to up the tempo but she did not have enough in the tank to close the gap and had to settle for second place.

Parmakoski also put in a strong spurt towards the end, delighting the noisy Finnish fans in the crowd as she finished on exactly the same time as Bjoergen to claim a bronze medal.

Jessica Diggins came close to winning a first cross-country medal since 1976 for the United States but the Minnesota native came up agonisingly short, finishing 3.3 seconds behind the bronze medallists in fifth place.

(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)