As a result of their triumphs, both athletes will have the overall World Cup leaders yellow bib heading into tomorrow's women's five kilometre and men's 10km free technique competitions.  

Halfvarsson arrived in Lillehammer with the men's yellow bib already following last week's opening stage in Ruka, Finland, while Weng took the women's with her win today after two third place finishes last week.

For Weng, it was her first ever World Cup victory in a sprint competition after recording 10 sprint podiums in previous World Cup races.

The 25-year-old posted a final leg time of 3min 15.76sec which was good enough to clinch the title.

In second place, for the second weekend in a row, was another Norwegian in Maiken Caspersen Falla who finished 0.48sec behind.

The silver medal continues a sublime spell of form for Falla at the moment, having not finished lower than second in the last six World Cup classic sprint events.

Hanna Falk of Sweden took third place 1.06sec off of the leader for her first podium position since January 2011 in Liberec, Czech Republic, where she placed second in the free technique sprint race.

"I am very happy today," said Falk.

"It has been six years since I was last time on the podium.

"I've had to wait a long time to come back but I felt stronger and stronger during the day and in the final I tried to follow Maiken and Heidi."

Meanwhile, in the men's 1.6km classic sprint competition today, Halfvarsson increased his overall World Cup lead with his victory.

It was only his second ever career individual World Cup win with his last coming three years ago in the free technique sprint race in the Tour de Ski in Oberho in Germany.

"I felt strong in the prologue and in all the heats," added Halfvarsson.

"I decided to go out of the track on the last climb because I had a better grip there.

"I think I am headed in the right direction and we will see tomorrow how things are."

After three World Cup competitions Halfvarsson leads the World Cup standings by 26 points ahead of Finland's Iivo Niskanen who was fourth in today's sprint, a career best sprint result for him.

In second place in Lillehammer was Norway's Emil Iversen who finished on the the tails of Halfvarsson skis just 0.12secs behind the winner.

Teodor Peterson of Sweden took third 0.54sec behind to claim his first podium position since he finished first in this event in Falun in Sweden during the World Cup leg there in 2014.