Katharina Hennig stormed onto the podium in the cross-country skiers' season finale for the eighth time in her career.

The 26-year-old Olympic champion in the team sprint took third place in the mass start over 20 kilometers in the classic style in Lahti and ended the World Cup year in seventh place overall. "It's the perfect conclusion," said Hennig. "It makes me very proud and makes me want more."

Victory went to Norway's Anne Kjersti Kalvaa for the first time. Second was Jonna Sundling from Sweden. The Norwegian Tiril Udnes Weng had already secured the overall World Cup the day before.

"Get a second breath"

In her favorite discipline, Hennig was in the leading group throughout the race, but had to struggle with problems shortly before the end. "I saw asterisks on the last climb and thought I had to let it go. Somehow I got my second breath again. Probably because I knew it was the last blatant torture of the season," she reported.

On the home stretch, Hennig sprinted from fourth place past the Swede Ebba Andersson and secured fifth podium place this season, in which silver at the World Championships in the relay was the highlight. The gap to Kalvaa was only 1.1 seconds. Laura Gimmler in ninth completed the good result for the German runners. Pia Fink was 20th, Sofie Krehl 21st, Coletta Rydzek 24th and Victoria Carl 29th.