Alex Harvey has become the first Canadian to claim back-to-back wins on consecutive weekends in the FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup ©Getty Images

Alex Harvey became the first Canadian to claim back-to-back wins on consecutive weekends in the International Ski Federation (FIS) Cross-Country Skiing World Cup after topping the men’s 15 kilometres free technique interval start podium in Swedish city Ulricehamn today.

After winning last weekend's team sprint in Italian resort Toblach with Len Valjas, Harvey clocked an unrivalled time of 32 min 46.2sec.

It ensured victory by a margin of six seconds over Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby, who made up time over the final kilometres.

Home favourite Marcus Hellner was 14.3sec back in third as Ulricehamn hosted the opening day of its inaugural FIS Cross-Cross Skiing World Cup event.

"It does feel great to win again today," said Harvey, whose win was his first-ever in an interval start distance competition.

"Everything was clicking today.

"This is a new place for us, but the course was really good and suited my abilities.

"I was in it from the beginning and felt good the whole way today."

Sundby has increased his lead in the overall World Cup standings by moving onto 1,218 points.

Russia's Sergey Ustiugov, who did not compete today, is 257 behind in second.

Norway's Marit Bjoergen picked up her first win of 2017 after topping the women's 10km podium ©Getty Images
Norway's Marit Bjoergen picked up her first win of 2017 after topping the women's 10km podium ©Getty Images

The women’s 10km free technique interval start event saw Norway's Marit Bjørgen claim her 104th individual World Cup victory.

In her first competition since appearing in French resort La Clusaz last month, the six-time Olympic gold medallist won with a time of 23:46.3.

"It is always great to win," Bjørgen said.

"I stayed at home for five weeks at home and trained.

"It is great to come back with a victory is great.

"I know that the training I had done was good.

"It was an amazing atmosphere.

"There were people cheering everywhere."

Finland's Krista Parmakoski was 10.7sec behind in the runners-up spot, continuing her impressive season.

As in the men’s competition, the crowd was treated to a Swedish athlete finishing in third place with Charlotte Kalla ending up 24.9 back.

It went right to the finish line to know who would round out the podium as Kalla crossed just 0.8 ahead of Norway's Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen.

Norway’s Heidi Weng remains top of the overall World Cup standings on 1,391 points, despite finishing sixth today.

She also leads the distance World Cup standings on 638, 101 ahead of Parmakoski

Competition in Ulricehamn is due to continue tomorrow with the men’s 4x7.5km and women’s 4x5km relays.