Olympic report
Wust claims third speedskating gold
Ireen Wust gave the Netherlands its second straight gold medal at the Olympic speedskating oval by winning the women’s 3,000 meters Sunday.
Skating in the next-to-last pairing, Wust turned in a time of 4 minutes, 0.34 seconds to knock off defending Olympic champion Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic.
Sablikova settled for the silver in 4:01.95, clapping for her rival after Wust crossed the line.
The bronze went to Olga Graf, who gave Russia its first medal of the Winter Games in 4:03.47, sending the crowd at Adler Arena into a frenzy.
Six-time Olympian Claudia Pechstein was looking to win her 10th Olympic medal, but the 41-year-old German faded badly over the final laps and didn’t even make the podium. She was fourth in 4:05.26.
Cologna surges to win skiathlon
Switzerland’s Dario Cologna had ankle surgery in November, but that now seems ancient. He won the 30-kilometer skiathlon, pulling away at the top of the last uphill section. The three-time overall World Cup winner claimed his second Olympic gold medal. He was timed in 1 hour, 8 minutes, 15.4 seconds. Defending champion Marcus Hellner of Sweden took silver, with the bronze to Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby. Norway’s Petter Northug, one of the favorites, faded and finished 17th.
Kuzmina repeats in biathlon
Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina matched her gold from Vancouver in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint. Kuzmina shot flawlessly and finished in 21 minutes, 6.8 seconds. The silver medal went to Russia’s Olga Vilukhina and the bronze to Ukraine’s Vita Semerenko. Kuzmina’s brother is Russian biathlete Anton Shipulin, who was fourth Saturday.
Loch rolls to glory again in luge
Felix Loch won his second straight Olympic gold medal in men’s luge on Sunday, easily defeating the world’s top sliders.
The 24-year-old German finished four runs down the Sanki Sliding Center track in 3 minutes, 27.526 seconds. Russia’s Albert Demchenko won the silver and Italy’s Armin Zoeggeler took bronze, his record sixth Olympic luge medal.
Loch joined German teammate Georg Hackl, his coach, and Zoeggeler as the only athletes to repeat as Olympic titlists. Loch is just getting started, and could one day stand alone as the best luger ever.
On a course designed with three uphill sections to keep sliders safer and prevent a tragedy like the one at the Vancouver Games four years ago, Loch was the fastest – by far. He defeated Demchenko by 0.476 seconds.
Stoch takes men’s ski-jumping gold
In control from the start, Kamil Stoch of Poland won the Olympic gold in the men’s normal hill individual ski jump. Stoch had the best jump in each round, putting first ahead of the silver medalist Peter Prevc of Slovenia and bronze medalist Anders Bardal of Norway. Thomas Morgenstern of Austria, returning from serious injuries from a fall during training a month ago, was 14th. Simon Amman of Switzerland, the defending champion from Vancouver who was seeking a record fifth Olympic gold medal, finished 17th.