2010
18
Feb
Vancouver (AFP) – Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen won the Olympic Games men’s 20km biathlon title on Thursday.
Belarus’s Sergey Novikov and Norway’s and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen shared silver in a dead heat.
dj/mp
2010
17
Feb
Whistler (AFP) – Russia’s Nikita Kriukov held off compatriot Alexander Panzhinskiy in a photo-finish to claim Olympic gold in the men’s sprint classic Wednesday with Norway’s Petter Northug Jnr taking third.
The 24-year-old Kriukov was pushed all the way to the line by Panzhinsky and the pair crossed the line together, but the photo gave Kruikov the winning time of three minutes 36.33sec with Panzhinskiy given a time of 0.0sec behind.
Northug, the current overall World Cup leader, made up for the disappointment of finishing 41st on Monday in the men’s 15km freestyle, by claiming third at 9.2sec behind on the 1.6 km course at Whistler Olympic Park.
Currently ranked 18th on the World Cup, Kriukov only managed his first podium finish on the global ciruit in Finland last November and this was his first major victory.
And Panzhinskiy has also come from down the rankings for his silver having been ranked 48th in the world coming into Vancouver, but 16th in the sprint rankings.
“I was very surprised, I was lucky because for the last two weeks I have not felt very good,” said Panzhinskiy. “I am very, very happy with silver.”
After the disappointment of Monday’s poor finish, 24-year-old Northug has finally started showing the type of form which saw him win three gold medals at last year’s world championships in Liberec.
ryy/dj10
2010
16
Feb
Whistler (AFP) – Sweden’s Bjorn Ferry won the men’s Olympic pursuit title on Tuesday with Austrian Christoph Sumann taking silver and Frenchman Vincent Jay bronze.
cw/dj10
2010
15
Feb
Whistler (AFP) – Switzerland’s Dario Cologna underlined his status as one of cross-country’s rising stars with a devastating win to take Olympic gold in the men’s 15km freestyle on Monday.
It was Switzerland’s second gold of the day at the Games following Didier Defago’s win in the men’s downhill skiing.
“With this victory, my childhood dream came true,” said the Swiss star.
“I had a very good feeling from the start, I didn’t believe I could win the 15km, but I pushed until the end.”
The 23-year-old Cologna, currently third in the World Cup rankings, blew away his rivals to finish in 33min 36.3sec with Italy’s Pietro Piller Cottrer in second and Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic taking bronze.
The Italian was 24.6sec off the gold-medal winning pace, while Bauer, currently ranked second overall in the World Cup, was 35.7sec back.
“I wanted gold, but getting silver behind such a great athlete is gold for me,” said Piller Cottrer.
“To jump on the podium means my training was excellent.”
And Bauer said he will use the experience to try and win gold later this week.
“I know I am able to fight with the best of them and I got a medal, now I ccan fight for the gold.”
Pre-race favourite Petter Northug Jr of Norway, the current World Cup leader, had a race to forget as he came home 41st, more than two minutes behind Cologna.
France’s Maurice Manificat had set the early pace before compatriot Vincent Vittoz and then Piller Cottrer pushed him down the rankings.
The Italian made a strong bid for gold with a time of 34 mins 0.9sec before Cologna’s medal-winning performance knocked him into silver.
Earlier, Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla claimed gold in the women’s 10km freestyle event to give her country their first medal of these Olympic Games.
ryj/dj10
2010
14
Feb
Vancouver (AFP) – Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic won the 3,000-meter women’s speedskating gold on Sunday at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, four years after just missing a medal in the event.
Three-time reigning World Cup long distance champion Sablikova won in 4mins 2.53 secs while Germany’s Stephanie Beckert took the silver, 2.09 seconds back with Canada’s Kristina Groves capturing the bronze in 4:04.84.
Sablikova posted the time to beat at 4:02.53 with heat partner Japan’s Masako Hozumi next overall at 4:07.36.
But three pairings remained to skate around the 400-meter oval, two of them featuring local hopefuls seeking Canada’s first gold medal on home soil.
Clara Hughes, reigning Olympic 5,000m champion and a two-time 1996 Summer Olympic bronze medalist, took a run but fell short and settled for fifth at 4:06.01.
Groves, 2006 Olympic runner-up at 1,500m, was on pace to seize the lead but faded in the last three laps and was passed by Beckert, who edged ahead in the final strides in what turned out to be the battle for silver.
Dutch defending champion Ireen Wust and Germany’s Daniela Anschutz Thoms were each on a winning pace midway into the final pairing but both faded off the podium, Wust to eighth and Thoms to fourth, as Sablikova celebrated.
Sablikova extended a run of Czech Winter Olympic medals that began with the 1998 men’s hockey gold and continued in 2002 with men’s aerialist Ales Valenta and women’s 30km freestyle cross country champion Katerina Neumannova in 2006.
Canadian world record-holder Cindy Klassen, who won five medals in 2006 at Torino, but underwent surgery on both knees in 2008, excited the crowd with a fast start but faded to cross the line in 4:15.53.
js/mp
2010
13
Feb
Whistler, BC ― The ladies’ alpine skiing super combined competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games originally scheduled for 10:00 am (downhill) and 1:00 pm (slalom) Pacific Time on Sunday, February 14 at Whistler Creekside has been rescheduled to take place on Thursday, February 18 at 10:00 am (downhill) and 1:00 pm (slalom).
The postponement is the result of weather conditions that caused the cancellation of the ladies’ downhill training run on Friday. Training runs will now take place at 11:00 am on Sunday, February 14. As per International Ski Federation (FIS) rules a downhill training run must be completed prior to competition.
Event Ticket information:
Event tickets for Sunday’s event will remain valid for the rescheduled event. Ticket holders with questions can visit www.vancouver2010.com, call 1.800.TICKETS or visit a ticket booth at any Vancouver 2010 competition venue.
Olympic bus network ticket information:
Olympic bus network (OBN) tickets for Sunday’s event will remain valid.
Since the new event time is the same as the previously scheduled one, customers will keep their original departure times from the OBN hub.
Spectators may give their event tickets and Olympic bus network tickets to friends and family if they are no longer able to use them.
The official and most up-to-date source for all Vancouver 2010 information, including schedules, results, tickets and transportation is www.vancouver2010.com.
2010
12
Feb
The 2010 Winter Olympics will begin under a serious cloud after the death of a Georgian luger in training ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony.
Go to Source
2010
11
Feb
Whistler (AFP) – With five-time Olympian Pierre Lueders and World Cup stars such as Kaillie Humphries in their squad, Canada are doubly confident going into the Olympic bobsleigh, given they will be also competing on home ice.
But there’s the rub because home comforts don’t always mean a built-in advantage, warns Helen Upperton, who just missed a medal at the Torino 2006 Games.
“You go in with more confidence because you feel you really know the track. I think the home field advantage is a great benefit. But it’s a tough track,” Kuwait-born Upperton said Thursday in contemplating the hosts’ chances of finally landing the home gold that Canada so craves.
Head coach Tuffy Latour says there are two ways of looking at dealing with the heightened expectations of the home fans.
“You have to look at it as an advantage rather than pressure on them (the team),” stressed Latour. “We’ve got a pretty relaxed group.”
With Lueders turning 40 in September, it’s also a group with experience of the big stage.
Lueders has seen it all before, winning two-man gold at Nagano in 1998 and then a silver in Torino four years ago as well as a pair of world championships.
This season, however, has seen no World Cup successes.
“It’s not been the great season I would have hoped for. But I can draw on 20 years experience,” he said.
To bolster his challenge, Lueders has turned to Canadian Football League running back Jesse Lumsden, who after dislocating his shoulder playing for the Edmonton Eskimos, switched over to bobsleigh as part of his cross-training rehabilitation and promptly found himself on the Olympic team.
“It’s a real honour to be here. I put everything I had into accomplishing this goal,” said 27-year-old Lumsden.
He and Lueders have bonded well as they won the Canadian national two-man title at Whistler last year.
The pair have also managed World Cup top-ten finishes in the four-man bob alongside Neville Wright and Justin Kripps.
“It’s just amazing to be a part of this,” chipped in Kripps.
For teammates Chris Le Bihan and Lyndon Rush, the Olympic Games will set the seal on a memorable year as both have become fathers – Le Bihan for the first time.
“First baby, first Olympics. It’s a big month,” said Le Bihan.
The team includes Jamaica-born Lascelles Brown, silver winner in the two-man four years ago and the first Jamaican-born athlete to win a winter medal.
After previously competing with Lueders he is now brakeman to Rush.
cw/dj10
2010
10
Feb
Whistler (AFP) – Swiss veteran Didier Cuche topped the first training run for the men’s Olympic alpine skiing downhill here on Wednesday.
With the blue riband event to take place on Saturday, the racers have the opportunity to test the 3,105-metre-long Dave Murray course three times before the race.
Cuche, the reigning world super-G champion, clocked 1min 53.22sec down the picturesque tree-lined course that showed a vertical drop of 853 metres.
It was a reassuring day’s skiing for Cuche, coming just two weeks after he fractured his right thumb in a crash during a giant slalom at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia.
Sporting a helmet showing a map of Canada, the 35-year-old made the most of his early starting bib number of 16 as training was later hampered by a lack of visibility and deteriorating snow conditions.
“I had two days of training before today and during that I felt really good,” Cuche said, adding that his thumb had not affected him.
“It’s not really painful, it’s just bothering me a little bit, and today when I was really concentrating I felt nothing.”
Cuche added that given the variable weather conditions forecast for the coming days, he was glad to have notched up a satisfying run.
“The course is really nice but maybe not as hard as I like it,” he said. “I’m happy to be fast in the first training run because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple of days.”
Canada’s Robbie Dixon finished with the second fastest time of 1:53.51 to offer hopes of a home skier being able to push for a podium spot.
Swiss pair Ambrosini Hoffman and Didier Defago were next in the timings, at 0.55 and 0.80sec respectively.
Italian downhill specialist Werner Heel was in fifth at 0.82sec with another Canadian medal hope, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, a further 0.14sec adrift.
Then came American Bode Miller and a fourth Swiss racer, Patrick Kueng, with Austrian Michael Walchhofer, the reigning Olympic downhill silver medallist who also claimed world downhill gold in 2003 and super-G silver in the 2005 worlds in Bormio, in ninth at 1.16sec.
“It’s my first time on this hill,” said Walchhofer. “It’s a great slope although it’s not so fast. It was nice to ski, and there are a lot of bumps.
“If there’s just one training run, maybe it’s better for them (Canadians).”
The second downhill training run is slated to take place on Thursday and the third on Friday, with the actual race scheduled for Saturday morning.
The downhill will be followed by the super-combined on February 16, the super-G (Feb 19), the giant slalom (Feb 21) and the slalom (Feb 27).
lp/dj10
2010
9
Feb
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Anahein (AFP) – Ryan Getzlaf, the Ducks center due to play for Canada at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, was nursing a sprained left ankle on Tuesday after he was hurt in an NHL contest the night before.
“Hopefully, he won’t be out too long,” said defenseman Scott Niedermayer, the captain of the Ducks and Team Canada. “I don’t have to say what he means to this team and what he does for us, so hopefully it’s not bad.”
Getzlaf had scored his 15th goal earlier in the game against the Los Angeles Kings, before spraining his ankle in the second period and limping to the bench.
X-rays on Getzlaf’s ankle showed no broken bones, and he was expected to undergo an MRI on Tuesday.
Getzlaf has 57 points in 55 games for the Ducks, and was selected to play for Canada at the Olympic Games alongside Niedermayer and Anaheim’s Corey Perry.
Perry had a goal and two assists in the Ducks’ 4-2 victory over Los Angeles.
bb/dj10