RUMFORD (AP) – Olympian Lars Flora won the 50-kilometer freestyle and Sarah Konrad took the 30K women’s race by 3.2 seconds Sunday as both captured the final titles of the 2004 Chevrolet U.S. Cross Country Championships.

Flora, of Anchorage, Alaska, pulled away from an Olympic teammate, Andrew Johnson of Greensboro, Vt., to win in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 9.0 seconds.

Johnson took the silver medal at Black Mountain in 2:08.31.4 with 1998 Olympian Marc Gilbertson in third place (2:08.39.5).

Flora said he grew tired at the end of the eight-lap race, “but I kept telling myself ‘Keep going, keep going.’ I got about a 10-second gap (on Johnson) and then kept going.”

Konrad, of Laramie, Wyo., pulled away from Aubrey Smith of Seward, Alaska, to win in 1:30.22.4 with Smith finishing in 1:30.25.6. Hilary Patzer of Sun Valley, Idaho, was the bronze medalist with a time of 1:31.45.4.

Konrad said she made a small breakaway in the final kilometer, then worried about whether she had made her move too soon, “so I gunned it from there and they couldn’t catch me.”

The championships drew a record registration of 559 skiers, with a one-day mark of 478 racers set last Tuesday.

U.S. teams for the World Junior Championships will be held early next month in Stryn, Norway, and the teams for the Under-23 World Championships, scheduled for Feb. 11-15 at Soldier Hollow, Utah, will be named shortly, based on results from the Rumford races.

AP-ES-01-11-04 1926EST