France - Magnus Moan of Norway made up a huge deficit on Finland's World Cup leader Anssi Koivuranta to claim his fifth season victory in Nordic combined skiing on Saturday.

Trailing Koivuranta by almost two minutes after the morning ski-jumping portion, Moan passed his rival in the closing stages of the
10-kilometre cross-country pursuit to win in 26 minutes 6.8 seconds.

Moan has now won three of the last four races, five in the season and a dozen overall.

Koivuranta trailed by 9.2 seconds and German Bjoern Kircheisen placed third with a deficit of 32.9 seconds.

Koivuranta tops the World Cup with 853 points from 14 events. Moan closed further in on his rival with 801 points and Kircheisen ranks third with 709 points.

Another competition is set for Sunday in Chaux-Neuve. (dpa)