Mon, Feb 17, 2014 page18

• Jansrud and Samkova mine gold in Russian mountains

  • Agencies, SOCHI, Russia
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  Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud sped to Olympic gold in the men’s super-G Alpine skiing yesterday, while Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic won the women’s snowboarding cross on the testing course where a Russian skier broke her back a day earlier.

  Skicross racer Maria Komissarova, 23, was in a serious, but stable condition after an operation lasting more than six hours on Saturday to insert a metal implant in her back. Doctors said it would take three or four days to know how successful the surgery had been.

  However, many Russians’ thoughts were still on the ice hockey action of the previous day, when a late disallowed goal cost the hosts victory over archrivals the US.

  

  Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud races in the Sochi Winter Olympics men’s super-G in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, yesterday.

  Photo: EPA

  In a rare moment of political unity, supporters and opponents of Russina President Vladimir Putin came together on Twitter to express their outrage after the US won in a shootout.

  “The puck was in the goal. What an abomination. Cheating before the whole world! Disgusting!” wrote Alexei Pushkov, a senior pro-Putin member of parliament after the score was wiped out because the goal had been shifted from its mooring.

  Prominent gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev was left in shock.

  “There’s a huge scandal in the hockey tournament. The American referee didn’t allow the Russian goal. Damn!” Alexeyex tweeted.

  On the Rosa Khutor piste in the Caucasus mountains, Jansrud secured Norway’s fourth successive Olympic men’s super-G win, while 36-year-old American Bode Miller tied for bronze with Canada’s Jan Hudec to become the oldest ever Alpine skiing medalist.

  Miller’s teammate Andrew Weibrecht captured a surprise silver medal after starting 29th, with all the favorites gone.

  “When Andrew came down he scared me,” Jansrud said. “It was a little too exciting. My legs were like jelly there for a second, but I knew I had finished very strong.”

  Czech snowboarder Samkova, sporting a fake mustache for good luck, avoided the rough and tumble of the pack in a thrilling event where racers go head-to-head down a twisty course full of bumps and jumps, jostling with their rivals to find the best line.

  Defending champion Maelle Ricker of Canada and 2006 silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis of the US were eliminated in the heats after taking tumbles on the Extreme Park course.

  Dominique Maltais of Canada took silver to add to the bronze she won in Turin eight years ago, while French teenager Chloe Trespeuch won the bronze after overhauling Bulgarian Alexandra Jekova.

  Two more racers, Norway’s Helene Olafsen and Jacqueline Hernandez of the US, were stretchered off earlier after bad falls, though neither was seriously injured.

  In men’s ice hockey, Michael Grabner scored two goals and Mathias Lange made 34 saves as Austria held off Norway 3-1 yesterday for their first ever victory at the Olympics.

  Michael Raffl scored in the first period for Austria, who finished third in their group with a 1-2 record.

  Grabner, the New York Islanders forward, has five goals in his first three Olympic matches after scoring early and late against Norway. His breakaway goal with 1 minute, 37 seconds left secured the victory.

  Per-Age Skroder scored and Lars Haugen stopped 24 shots for Norway, who have not won an Olympic ice hockey game since their home Lillehammer Games in 1994.

  On Saturday, T.J. Oshie scored the shootout winner as the US defeated Russia 3-2 in a nail-biting ice hockey clash.

  Pavel Datsyuk had two goals in regulation for Russia, while Joe Pavelski and Cam Fowler scored power-play goals for the US, with both coming while Russia forward Alexander Radulov was sitting in the penalty box.

  With the score tied at 2-2 in the third period Russia appeared to score the winner, but the goal was disallowed, apparently because the net had been knocked out of place.

  “I guess every kid guy growing up wants to do the shootout, and go out and mess around and practice it, so tonight it paid off,” Oshie said.

  In all seven golds were decided on Saturday.

  Poland’s Kamil Stoch won his second ski jumping gold of the Olympics when he triumphed on the large hill to deny Japan’s Noriaki Kasai the chance to become the oldest ever Winter Games champion.

  Stoch led by almost three points after the first jump, but a huge leap from 41-year-old Kasai in the second round put the pressure on the Pole.

  Yet he did just enough to maintain a lead of 1.3 points and secure the gold medal, to add to the world title he won last year. Slovenia’s Peter Prevc took bronze.

  Russia’s Victor Ahn won his fourth gold in short track when he stormed to victory in the men’s 1,000m.

  Ahn, who won three golds for his native South Korea at the 2006 Turin Olympics before switching nationality, triumphed in a time of 1 minute, 25.325 seconds.

  Poland’s Zbigniew Brodka won a dramatic 1,500m speedskating race by just 0.003 seconds from devastated Dutchman Koen Verweij.

  Sweden took a thrilling gold in the women’s 4x5km cross country relay, overtaking Finland and Germany in the last meters, while in women’s short track China’s Zhou Yang defended her 1,500m title.

  Alexander Tretiakov earned Russia’s fourth gold of the Olympics with victory in the men’s skeleton.
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