Rybinsk, Russia - Pirjo Muranen of Finland ended a long winning drought while Italy's Renato Pasini denied hosts Russia with sprint victories in the cross-country skiing World Cup on Saturday.

Muranen won the women's freestyle race from Italians Arianna Follis and Magda Genuin to capture her fifth career win, but the first in more than six years since December 2002. Muranen was a sprint world champion under her maiden name Manninen in 2001.

Pasini captured his second career win in the men's race when he outlasted the Russian challenge of Alexey Petukhov and Anton Gafarov. He had also claimed his first win in Rybinsk, in January 2007.

The top three in the World Cup - Dario Cologna of Switzerland (906 points), Norway's Petter Northug (698) and Axel Teichmann of Germany (649) - were not competing in Saturday's race.

Finland's Aino Kaisa Saarinen finished fourth on Saturday to retain the women's lead on 1,220 points from Petra Majdic of Slovenia
(1,090) and defending champion Virpi Kuitunen of Finland (1,069).

The Rybinsk events are wrapped up with pursuit races on Sunday. (dpa)