Plushenko grabs huge lead on Weir

Evgeni Plushenko’s personal best of 90.66 points Saturday gave the Russian a big lead over American Johnny Weir after the Olympic men’s figure skating short program at Turin, Italy.

From the moment he stepped on the ice until the conclusion of his routine to Puccini’s “Tosca,” Plushenko never flashed a hint of a smile. This was all business – and business was good for the 2002 Olympic silver medalist.

He nailed every element, from a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination to a solid triple axel to complex footwork into a triple lutz. Only when his final combination spin ended did he lighten up, going from intense concentration to a series of fist pumps. He seemed more relieved than excited.

Weir earned a personal-best 80.00 score.

SPEEDSKATING

Svetlana Zhurova, a 34-year-old Russian who took a break from speedskating to have a baby and regained her top form only recently, won the gold medal in the 500 meters at Turin.

She skated a combined time of 1 minute, 16.57 seconds to give Russia its second speedskating medal of these games. Dmitry Dorofeyev won silver in the men’s 500 on Monday.

Zhurova was matched with China’s Wang Manli in the final pair and beat her to the finish line after 11/4 laps in 38.34. Wang was timed in 38.47.

Wang earned the silver in 1:16.78. Ren Hui of China took bronze in 1:16.87.

Zhurova had a child in 2003 and returned to win the world sprint title last month.

LUGE

At Cesana, Sylke Otto became the second women’s luger to win consecutive golds, leading Germany to its sixth medal sweep in 12 Olympics.

Courtney Zablocki of Highlands Ranch, Colo., was fourth to match her best international finish, but it wasn’t enough to crack the top three against the powerful Germans.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING

At Pragelato, Bjoern Lind and Thobias Fredriksson of Sweden won the men’s Olympic cross-country team sprint.

“Lina Andersson and Anna Dahlberg of Sweden won gold in the women’s cross-country team sprint, edging Beckie Scott and Sara Renner of Canada.

Scott came in six-tenths of a second behind and Finland’s pair of Kaisa Aino Saarinen and Virpi Kuitunen took the bronze.

BIATHLON

Two-time defending Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen faltered once again, allowing Sven Fischer to give the Germans their second straight gold medal in the men’s biathlon at Cesana.

American Jay Hakkinen fell apart, finishing 80th out of 90 competitors.

Bjoerndalen’s teammates did well, with Halvard Hanevold winning the silver and Frode Andresen taking the bronze.

But there were mixed emotions among the Norwegians, because this was supposed to be Bjoerndalen’s moment to shine.

Instead, he finished 12th.

Bjoerndalen entered the Turin Games as the favorite in all five races. He swept all four gold medals in 2002.

HOCKEY

At Turin, Angela Ruggiero scored the go-ahead goal on an end-to-end rush in the third period as the Americans rallied from a rare two-goal deficit to beat Finland 7-3 in the women’s tournament.

Sarah Parsons also scored two goals for the Americans (3-0), who struggled through most of the first 41 minutes of their final preliminary-round match.

Canada got its first challenge – and finally allowed a goal – in the tournament. The gold-medal favorites barely seemed to notice in another dominant win.

Gillian Apps scored three goals, Danielle Goyette added two more and Canada (3-0) finished the preliminary round with an 8-1 victory over Sweden (2-1).