Northug within touching distance of first overall World Cup title

DOUBLE Olympic champion Petter Northug has all but guaranteed his first World Cup overall title finishing second in the 1km sprint in Drammen, Norway to extend his lead at the top of the standings.

TOUCHING DISTANCE: Petter Northug has almost clinched his first overall World Cup title
with a silver in Drammen (Getty Images)

Sweden's Emil Joensson won the race in 2:57.9 minutes with American Andrew Newell finishing third to take bronze 2.1 seconds off the pace.

Northug, who won gold medals in Vancouver in both the team sprint and 50km classical, is unlikely to be caught by the Czech Republic's second placed Lukas Bauer, who is now 252 points behind the Norwegian on 888.

Meanwhile, Norway's Marit Bjoergen took gold in the women's sprint after overall World Cup leader Justyna Kowalczyk fell in the final.

The Norwegian took the title in front of her home crowd in a time of 3:16.2 minutes ahead of Aino-Kaisa Saarinen from Finland, who won silver after crossing the line first in her semi final.

Finland's Pirjo Muranen came home 1.4 seconds behind to take bronze.

Despite finishing in sixth after her tumble, Poland's Kowalczyk now sits top of the sprint World Cup rankings by 33 points in the absence of Slovenia's Petra Majdic who is in second with 446 points.