The Russians yesterday won the gold in men’s hockey, but lacked a national anthem to listen to — so they sang it instead to celebrate their 4-3 victory over Germany.
“You play for your country; it is more important,” Russian captain Pavel Datsyuk said. “It feels good, but I have accomplished my dream. Now, I have no dream.”
The Russians were favored to win the men’s tournament against Germany, but needed Kirill Kaprizov’s overtime goal to give them their first hockey gold since 1992.
Photo: AFP
The game was tied 1-1 entering the third period, but Russia’s Nikita Gusev scored on a shot that bounced in off the helmet of Germany goaltender Danny aus den Birken. Just 10 seconds later, Dominik Kahun tied it.
After Germany took a 3-2 lead, Russia then had to kill a penalty and knotted it again at 3-3 on Gusev’s second goal.
“It was the craziest game ever,” Ilya Kovalchuk said. “We scored [to make it] 2-1 and we thought ‘everything is OK now,’ but then they scored quickly and we got a penalty. When we had the penalty with two minutes to go, I honestly thought we won’t be Olympic champions.”
Meanwhile, Marit Bjoergen of Norway closed out her career — and the Winter Games — by adding another gold to her record-breaking collection.
The 37-year-old finished the women’s 30km mass start in 1 hour, 22 minutes, 17.6 seconds, more than 1 minute, 49 seconds ahead of silver medalist Krista Parmakoski of Finland for her 15th overall medal — the most by any athlete in Winter Olympic history.
“When I look behind me and see what I have done, it’s incredible,” said Bjoergen, who has won eight gold medals. “It has been an amazing career for me. This is my last Olympics and to finish like this is incredible.”
Bjoergen’s latest medal also gave Norway 14 overall in cross-country skiing, breaking the record of 13 held by the Soviet Union in 1988. The Norwegians leave with 39 overall medals, also a Winter Games record.
Also yesterday, Sweden beat South Korea’s “Garlic Girls” for gold in women’s curling.
The Swedes took control of the match by stealing a point in back-to-back ends to win 8-3.
Sweden’s women’s squad continued its dominance in the sport with five medals — three gold — in the six Olympics since curling joined the Games.
The silver was the first curling medal for South Korea.
“We have been through a lot so that we could blaze a trail,” skip Kim Eun-jung said.
Meanwhile, Germany won the four-man bobsled competition, with Francesco Friedrich and his team of Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis finishing their four runs in 3 minutes, 15.85 seconds to win by more than a half-second.
The South Korean and German sleds shared second after they both finished in 3 minutes, 16.38 seconds.
Friedrich became the fifth German pilot to sweep the two-man and four-man golds in the same games. Push athlete Kevin Kuske won his sixth medal in five Olympic appearances.
“When we lose, when we win, when someone is ill, we are all together,” Friedrich said. “We have perfect companionship and harmony, and that is the secret. That is what makes us the best team at the moment.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier