Fenninger claims super-G, Sweden pulls big upset
Print Edition
Anna Fenninger won the super-G gold medal yesterday at the Sochi Winter Olympics in a race in which many of the early skiers struggled to get down the tricky course.
The 24-year-old Austrian finished in 1 minute, 25.52 seconds, edging Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany by 0.55 seconds. Nicole Hosp of Austria was third.
The Austrians maintained their dominance in this Olympic event. Fenninger and Hosp made it eight of a possible 24 medals for the nation since the super-G began at the 1988 Calgary Games.
The combination of soft snow and a tight course design by Florian Winkler of Austria had early skiers struggling to make it down. Of the opening eight racers, seven didn’t finish.
“The setting is very hard,” said Italian racer Daniela Merighetti, who carried too much speed around a gate and went off the course.
Hoefl-Riesch and Hosp added to their medal totals at the Sochi Olympics. They went 1-2 in the super-combined earlier this week.
Pre-race favorites Lara Gut of Switzerland and Tina Maze of Slovenia were fourth and fifth. Julia Mancuso of the US was eighth.
Sweden created one of the biggest upsets of the Olympics by taking gold in the women’s 4x5km cross-country relay after anchorwoman Charlotte Kalla overtook Finland and Germany in a gripping final leg.
Jubilant teammates leaped on Kalla when she crossed the line after pulling back a seemingly impossible deficit of more than 25 seconds.
Favorites Norway, who had won every single World Cup, world championships and Olympic women’s relay they entered since November 2009, finished fifth, 53.6 seconds off the pace.
The Sochi Games are turning into a personal triumph for Kalla, who took silver in both the skiathlon and the 10km classic time trial, to follow her gold medal in the 10km freestyle time trial in Vancouver 2010.
She is the only athlete so far to win three medals in Sochi.
In women’s curling, Canada defeated Japan 8-6 yesterday to remain perfect at 6-0.
The race to join the Canadians in the playoffs heated up with Britain beating South Korea 10-8 and China defeating Sweden 7-6. China, Britain and Sweden are in a three-way tie for second at 4-2.
In women’s hockey, Sweden upset 2010 bronze medalists Finland 4-2 to set up a semifinal match with the US. Switzerland beat Russia 2-0 and will play Canada in the other semifinal.
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