The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Svindal grabs final chance to land downhill title
Aksel Lund Svindal wrote his name in Olympic history by becoming the oldest man to win the prestigious men’s downhill title on a Norwegian-dominated day at the Jeongseong Alpine Centre.
The 35-year-old Svindal led home his compatriot Kjetil Jansrud by 0.12 seconds while the pre-race favourite, double and reigning world champion Beat Feuz, had to settle for bronze.
Svindal already had one Olympic medal of each colour, all from the 2010 Vancouver Games, but it was feared his hopes of landing the blue riband title had gone after his fourth in Sochi.
Svindal said: “That (my age) doesn’t matter. The only thing it says is that this is probably my last Olympics. There is no such thing as a 100% sure thing in this world but it is very likely.”
Mikaela Shiffrin overturned a firstrun deficit to win what she hopes will be the first of a number of gold medals in the delayed women’s giant slalom.
The 22-year-old trailed Manuela Moelgg of Italy by 0.20 seconds after the first run, but powered to overall victory in a total time of two minutes 20.02.
Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway took silver 0.39 seconds behind while bronze went to Italy’s Federica Brignoni. Britain’s Alex Tilley crashed out on her first run.
Great Britain’s Dominic Parsons goes into today’s culmination of the men’s skeleton competition in fourth place just three hundredths of a second off the medal placings.
Parsons continued his superb training form to place behind South Korean World Cup winner Sungbin Yun, Russian Nikita Tregubov and Latvia’s Martins Dukurs, while team-mate Jerry Rice sits in 12th.
Norway’s Marit Bjoergen moved within one more medal of equalling Ole Einar Bjoerndalen’s Olympic record of 13 as she took bronze in the women’s 10km cross-country.
Bjoergen shared bronze after a deadheat with Finland’s Krista Parmakoski behind fellow Norwegian Ragnhild Haga, who took a surprise gold over Charlotte Kalla of Sweden.
Pierre Vaultier retained his Olympic men’s snowboard-cross title in a chaotic final in which three of the six-man field fell. Jarryd Hughes and Rogino Hernandez stayed on their feet to claim silver and bronze respectively.