Liberec, Czech Republic - Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway was unstoppable on the home stretch again as he won a second cross-country skiing world title in 24 hours, in the team sprint together with Johan Kjoelstad.

Hattestad passed Finland's Sami Jauhojaervi who also had to bow to German Axel Teichmann in a photo-finish as Norway won from Germany and Finland on the first partly sunny day of the championships.

There was more luck for Finland in the women's race as Virpi Kuitunen and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen destroyed the opposition to give Kuitunen her fifth world title overall and Saarinen her second in Liberec and third in total.

Liberec, Czech Republic  - English has taken over from Norwegian, Finnish or Russian as the number one language at the Nordic skiing world championships, thanks to a stunning US team.

Kikkan Randall's cross-country sprint silver on Tuesday was the fifth medal for the US which needed just six days in North Bohemia to match its previous haul from 46 editions over 83 years 1924-2007.

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Ola Vigen Hattestad lived up to his top billing in a Norwegian one-two finish and Arianna Follis of Italy won the women's race for world titles in the cross-country skiing sprint on Tuesday.

Hattestad, 26, won the men's final over 1.6 kilometres in snowy and foggy conditions in 3 minutes 0.8 seconds.

Compatriot Johan Kjoelstad placed second and Nikolay Morilov of Russia was third ahead of Swiss World Cup leader Dario Cologna, who missed out on the podium.

Hattestad won his first big title and underlined his dominance this season in which he won five of the six World Cup sprints he competed in and came second in the other.

Liberec, Czech Republic - Johan Kjoelstad and Natalia Matveeva led qualifying in the cross-country sprint at the Nordic skiing world championships on Tuesday as defending women's champion Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen crashed out.

Norway's Kjoelstad, who has two World Cup wins to his credit, clocked 3 minutes 2.05 seconds in constant snowfall on the
1.6-kilometres course.

Andrew Newell of Canada and Russian contender Alexei Petukhov followed. Defending champion Jens Arne Svartedal, 2001 winner Tor Arne Hetland and top favourite Ola Vigen Hattestad, all of Norway, were also among the 30 qualifiers from 132 starters.

Vienna  - Austria overtook Germany as a beer-drinking nation in 2008 and is now second only to the Czech Republic, the Austrian brewery association revealed on Monday.

Austrians downed 8.6 million hectolitres of beer in 2008, or 109.3 litres per person. Germany fell behind as its consumption per head dropped slightly to 108 litres, while the Czechs are expected to have comfortably defended their top position.

Every Czech drank 159 litres of beer in 2007, according to the latest available figures.

While 2 per cent more of the beverage flowed from Austrian taps in 2008, volumes in traditional beer-drinking countries like Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands fell, the brewery association said.

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Lukas Bauer is finally enjoying the world championships in his native Czech Republic after being almost overwhelmed by national pressure in the run-up.

"Now I am enjoying the world championships, before it was only stress," he told a news conference on the championship rest day Monday.

Bauer won the overall World Cup title last year which led to huge medal hopes and pressure. He delivered a 15-kilometres silver on Friday but had to be content with 25th place in Sunday's pursuit.