Maria in super-charged masterclass
SOCHI: Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch put on a skiing masterclass to defend her Olympic super-combined title yesterday, but 40-year- old biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen saw his hopes of becoming the greatest ever winter Olympian stalled. The 29-year-old Hoefl-Riesch, who also claimed the world title in 2013, posted a total time of 2min 34.62sec after one downhill and one slalom run on the tricky course high above the Games’ Sochi hub on the edge of the Black Sea.
She finished ahead of Austria’s Nicole Hosp at 0.40sec and US favourite Julia Mancuso, who made a key mistake halfway through the course to finish third at 0.53sec despite leading after the downhill. Hoefl-Riesch had been fifth after the morning’s run, but put in a smooth performance in the slalom-her speciality-to take her third Olympic gold medal after combined and slalom wins in Vancouver in 2010. “It was a big fight and it wasn’t easy because the snow was tough and bumpy. The hill was steep at the start, which I found especially difficult,” said Hoefl-Riesch.
“It didn’t feel great, but I skied fast enough. I was able to keep my skis going and didn’t break too much in the turns.” For Mancuso, it was a fourth Olympic medal-the joint-second most for an American woman at the Winter Games. “To win another medal is just a dream come true,” said Mancuso. “I dedicated this to my grandpa. He had always encouraged me, but he passed away a year ago. We had hoped he would make it to this Games, but it’s a great feeling that he has been watching from above.”
Bjoerndalen, taking part in his sixth Games, had drawn level with compatriot Bjorn Daehlie when he clinched a 12th Olympic medal with gold in Saturday’s 10km sprint and he started the 12.5km pursuit on Monday as favourite. But his hopes of a record 13th medal were agonisingly thwarted when he finished fourth, 1.7sec behind France’s Jean Guillaume Beatrix in third, after missing targets in the shooting stages.
World Cup leader Martin Fourcade took his first Olympic gold to give France their first title in Sochi after dominating the race from the mid-stage. He finished in 33min 48.6sec, 14.1sec ahead of Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic who came in second for silver. Despite his setback, Bjoerndalen is due to race in four more events in Sochi and remains on course to reach 13 medals. Canada’s Charles Hamelin, wearing a high-tech spandex bodysuit, claimed his third Olympic gold when he won the men’s 1500m short track speed skating title.
Hamelin, 29, timed 2:14.985 to snatch the gold ahead of 17-year-old Han Tianyu of China, who took silver in 2:15.055. Victor Ahn, 28, gave hosts Russia their first ever Olympic short track medal with bronze in 2:15.062. It was a fifth Olympic medal for Ahn, formerly known as Ahn Hyun-Soo, who won gold in the 1000m, 1500m and 5000m relay for South Korea in 2006, before switching nationalities after failing to qualify for Vancouver.
Michel Mulder saw off a fierce challenge from his Dutch team-mates to win the 500m speed skating gold as the Netherlands swept the podium. Mulder, 27, won with a combined time from his two races of 69.31sec, beating compatriot Jan Smeekens by just 0.01sec in a thrilling climax to the competition. Ronald Mulder, the twin brother of Michel, took bronze in a time of 69.46sec. The day’s last gold will be in men’s moguls in freestyle skiing, where Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury, the 2013 world champion, and his compatriot Alex Bilodeau, who won gold in Vancouver, go head-to-head. — AFP