Evgeni Plushenko finished off what he started two days ago, and helped restore some Russian pride after the country became embroiled in the first doping scandal at the Turin Olympics.
Plushenko's flawless performance in the short program gave him an almost unbeatable lead going into the free skate on Thursday. He easily won the gold medal, just hours after fellow Russian and biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of a silver.
Pyleva returned a positive test to a banned stimulant and was expelled from the games while her rivals were lining up to start the 7.5km sprint. She also lost the medal she won while finishing second Monday in the 15km race.
PHOTO: AP
Russian officials claimed Pyleva was the unwitting victim of an error by a doctor who gave her an over-the-counter medication that contained the banned stimulant carphedon, but didn't list it on the package.
"It's a shocking situation," Pyleva told Russian TV, "because I've always been against using banned medications."
Plushenko opened his free skate program with a quadruple toe loop-triple toe-double loop combination, followed with a triple axel-double toe.
PHOTO: EPA
A touch of overkill, perhaps, but the three-time world champion said he desperately wanted the Olympic gold medal to complete his collection of titles.
"It was my dream when I was 4," said Plushenko, who extended Russia's streak to five consecutive titles in the men's event. "I saw a competition and said to my mom, `I have to be there.' I said that I wanted to be an Olympic champion.
"Now I have all the titles and I am really very happy."
PHOTO: AFP
Plushenko, the silver medalist four years ago in Salt Lake City, had 258.33 points overall -- an incredible 27.12 points in front of Swiss world champion and silver medalist Stephane Lambiel. Canada's Jeff Buttle was third.
In the Italian Alps, Estonia's Kristina Smigun won her second gold of the week and Seth Wescott won the inaugural snowboardcross event, making the US 3-for-3 in snowboard finals this week.
The Italian men's speedskating pursuit team claimed an against-the-odds win for the host nation, beating the US, Netherlands and Canada along the way. The women's pursuit had a far more predictable winner -- powerhouse Germany.
With Pyleva out of the women's 7.5km biathlon sprint, Florence Baverel-Robert of France was a surprise winner.
Maya Pedersen, who hung up her sled to become a mother two years ago, won the gold in skeleton for Switzerland -- the Alpine country's first of the Turin Games.
Pyleva was scratched from the field before the start of the biathlon 7.5km sprint, in which she was considered a leading medal contender. She also won gold and bronze medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
A three-member IOC panel found Pyleva guilty of a doping violation. She tested positive for carphedon in a urine test following Monday's race.
Nikolai Durmanov, head of the Russian Anti-Doping Committee, said a doctor who treated her for an ankle injury in January gave Pyleva an over-the-counter medication that did not list carphedon as one of its ingredients.
"It's a bad thing that somebody is testing positive, but it's a good thing we got her," said World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound.
The IOC has conducted 380 tests since the athletes' village opened Jan. 31; Pyleva is the first to be caught by the IOC's most rigorous doping control program ever at a Winter Olympics.
A total of 1,200 samples are being tested, a 72 percent increase over the number in Salt Lake City, where there were seven doping cases.
At the Lingotto oval, Italy's pursuit trio got past the Netherlands in the semifinals when two Dutch skaters fell. They then powered away from Canada for gold.
MEN'S HOCKEY
Canada and Finland are perfect after two days. That's no surprise. The only other country that's won twice at the Olympics is Slovakia -- and that is.
The defending champion and favorite, Canada defeated Germany 5-1 on Thursday to sit atop Group A with Finland.
Finland hammered Italy 6-0, getting two goals from Teemu Selanne. The Finns have outscored the opposition 11-0, following on opening-game victory over Switzerland.
Slovakia heads Group B, beating Latvia 6-3 after stunning Russia 24 hours earlier.
The upset of the day -- winning goal-scorer Mark Streit called it a ``miracle'' -- was Switzerland's 3-2 shocker over the world champion Czech Republic in the other Group A game. ``Hockey was not really on the map until now,'' Streit said. ``And I think with a game like that you can show the world how Swiss hockey is.''
Russia and the US settled after rocky openers in Group B. Russia, beaten 5-3 by Slovakia, ripped Sweden 5-0, and the United States defeated Kazakhstan 4-1 after struggling to a tie against Latvia, a country of only 2.3 million.
Out-shooting Germany 40-12, Canada picked up goals from five different players -- Wade Redden, Joe Sakic, Simon Gagne, Dany Heatley and Shane Doan. Canada, which wore distinctive black uniforms on Thursday, still has its toughest games coming up, including Finland and the Czech Republic.
With Selanne taking the lead, Saku Koivu, Jere Lehtinen, Jussi Jokinen and non-NHL player Ville Peltonen also scored for Finland.
The Finns still must play the Czechs and Canada, with the top four teams in each group reaching next week's quarterfinals.
Finland reached the quarterfinals at the 2002 Olympics before losing to Canada 2-1. The Finns won back-to-back bronze medals in 1994 and '98.
Playing in the tournament only because it is the host, Italy stayed in the game for more than a period, much as it did in a 7-2 loss Wednesday to Canada. Italy goalies Gunther Hell and Jason Muzzatti have faced 101 shots in two days.
With 18 NHL players on the roster, Slovakia may be tough to slow down.
Marian Hossa scored twice to lead the Slovaks over Latvia. Richard Zednik, Ronald Petrovicky, Pavol Demitra and Zdeno Chara also scored.
"We have some of the fastest players back in the NHL," said Los Angeles Kings forward Demitra. "It's too early to talk about gold, but we didn't fly 15 hours just to play here."
Like Russia's loss on Wednesday, the Czech Republic's slip-up is unlikely to keep it from the knockout stage, but it makes upcoming games with Finland and Canada critical. And it's embarrassing. The Czechs have 22 NHL players on their 23-man roster. The Swiss have three.
Switzerland goalie David Aebischer made 20 of his 40 saves in a second-period barrage -- including six against Jaromir Jagr.
Jagr and Marek Zidlicky scored for the Czechs. Thomas Ziegler and Thierry Patrelini -- he scored shorthanded -- set the stage for Streit's power-play winner at 6:42 of the third.
"I think it's by far the biggest win in Swiss hockey," Canadiens defenseman Streit said. "It's kind of a miracle."
Tomas Vokoun made 16 saves in place of injured goalie Dominik Hasek. Czech officials said Hasek has a "30-40" percent chance of returning from a hamstring injury picked up Wednesday facing Germany.
"It's just the second game," Czech forward Martin Rucinsky said. "Maybe it's a good thing that happened to us. Maybe it will wake us up and give us a warning."
Switzerland has won two bronze medals in Olympic hockey -- in 1928 and 1948 -- and has the edge to reach the quarterfinals ahead of Germany or Italy.
Russia rebounded from one of its worst Olympic hockey losses and dominated Sweden. Evgeni Nabokov turned aside 24 shots against the Swedes, who were 0-for-7 on the power play.
Sweden was coming off a 7-2 rout of Kazakhstan, but goalie Henrik Lundqvist never looked comfortable even as Russia went 1-for-8 on the power play.
Silver medalists in 2002, the US blistered winless Kazakhstan, taking a 3-0 first-period lead on goals by Bill Guerin, Brian Rolston and Brian Gionta.
In the second, Kazakhstan went 13:09 before getting a shot in that period on goalie Rick DiPietro. The US outshot Kazakhstan 36-12.
Mike Modano scored in the third, just 51 seconds after Yevgeniy Koreshkov broke DiPietro's shutout.
The final group games are today, tomorrow and Tuesday. The Americans face Slovakia, Sweden and Russia.
"The next three games are going to be big," Rolston said.
PREVIEW
Janica Kostelic's fever might be just the tonic the rest of the field needs in the combined skiing final at the Winter Olympics.
Kostelic has won the last six combined races she's entered, including the last Olympics and the past two world championships.
The veteran is still not sure she'll compete today, leaving a decision until race morning. She did get back on her skis Thursday.
"She did three runs of slalom training, but not at full strength," Croatia team spokesman Ozren Mueller said. "She still has some temperature and still feels weak."
Elsewhere Friday, three other golds will be decided -- the women's snowboard cross, men's singles skeleton and men's 15km cross-country skiing. Preliminaries are scheduled in ice dancing and ski jumping.
The combined race features one downhill and two slalom legs.
Anja Paerson, who won the bronze medal in Wednesday's downhill while Kostelic sat out sick, looks to be the favorite Friday, regardless of whether Kostelic competes.
Paerson, who's won the past two overall World Cup titles but is still seeking her first gold medal at an Olympics, wants Kostelic on the slopes at Sestriere.
"I hope she's healthy. If she's injured that's going to be really sad for the Olympics," Paerson said.
Thursday's downhill training session was canceled due to bad weather. Gusty winds and cloudy conditions are also forecast for today.
Another big-ticket item today is women's hockey semifinals, when Finland and Sweden start as rank underdogs against defending champion Canada and the US at Palasport Olimpico.
Don't bet against the Canadians and Americans meeting Monday in the gold medal final -- the two powerhouses are headed for their third straight finals appearance since women's hockey was added to the Olympic program in 1998 at Nagano, Japan.
"You want to win, but you want to win playing your best," said US forward Julie Chu.
"That's why it would be weird if we played anybody except Canada."
big scoring edge
Canada, champions at Salt Lake City in 2002, outscored its three opponents 36-1 in the preliminary round, including a 16-0 win over Italy and 12-0 over Russia.
In the men's skeleton, two-time defending World Cup champion Jeff Pain of Canada faces strong competition as he bids for his first Olympic medal.
Pain won three World Cup races this season, pushing Switzerland's Gregor Staehli into second place in the overall standings by a comfortable margin of 580 points to 425.
Staehli, a bronze medalist at Salt Lake, will hope to overcome Pain on Friday in the one-day, two-run event held at the speedy Cesana track.
Britain's Kristan Bromley, a former World Cup winner and two-time European champion, and Paul Boehm of Canada -- sixth overall in World Cup this season -- could also win a medal.
Canada could also feature on the podium in the women's snowboard cross, where Dominique Maltais is this season's World Cup leader and teammate Maelle Ricker is ranked second.
American Lindsey Jacobellis, the world champion, and third-ranked Doresia Krings of Austria, could also be among the medals along with the French pair of Karine Ruby, a four-time World Cup winner, and Julie Pomagalski, the 1999 world champion.
In men's 15km classical cross-country skiing, Frode Estil, who won silver at Salt Lake and bronze at the 2003 world titles, is among the favorites.
World Cup leader Tobias Angerer of Germany was a disappointing 12th in the 30km pursuit and continues to look for his first medal at any Olympics or world championship.
MARRED FINAL: As most of Senegalese players walked off the pitch after a controversial decision, some supporters threw objects and attempted to get onto the pitch Senegal on Sunday won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) as Pape Gueye’s extra-time winner sunk hosts Morocco 1-0 after a chaotic final that saw the eventual champions storm off the pitch late in the game. Brahim Diaz could have won the trophy for Morocco with a controversial spot-kick in the 24th minute of added time at the end of normal time as ugly scenes broke out in the stands. However, Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy easily saved the weak attempted “Panenka” chip by the Real Madrid winger, who was clearly distracted by the long delay that followed the penalty award.
James Harden on Friday scored 31 points and came up big in overtime to help the Los Angeles Clippers erase a double-digit deficit on the way to a 121-117 NBA victory over the Toronto Raptors. Harden scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Clippers pushed their wining steak to five games despite the absence of star Kawhi Leonard with a sprained right ankle. The Clippers trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter, but Harden drilled a pair of free-throws with 1:24 left in regulation to tie it and after misses from both teams, they went to
Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg on Wednesday was ruled out for the second half of their 118-109 loss to the Denver Nuggets after the No. 1 pick sprained his left ankle in the first half. Flagg was called for a foul while defending against Peyton Watson and turned the ankle as he fell to the floor with 6 minutes, 1 second left in the second quarter. Flagg limped to the bench and continued to the locker room, but returned for the final 2 minutes, 35 seconds before the break. The 19-year-old did not come out for the second half before the announcement that
Yassine Bounou on Wednesday saved two penalties, while Youssef en-Nesyri netted the decisive spot-kick as hosts Morocco secured a 4-2 shoot-out victory over Nigeria following a 0-0 draw in a tense Africa Cup of Nations semi-final in Rabat. Morocco, seeking their first continental title in 50 years, are to face 2021 winners Senegal in Sunday’s decider in Rabat, while Nigeria take on Egypt in the third-place playoff tomorrow. The 120 minutes before the shoot-out had few clear-cut chances for either side, but it was Morocco who created more opportunities, although they were denied by some fine saves from Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali. Nigeria
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