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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Olympic report: Ukraine wins rare gold

From Wire Reports

Ukraine gets over misses to win gold

Ukraine’s team of twins Vita and Valj Semerenko, Juliya Dzhyma, and Olena Pidhrushna missed five targets but avoided penalty loops to finish in 1 hour, 10 minutes, 2.5 seconds and claim the gold in women’s 4x6-kilometer biathlon relay. Russia was 26.4 seconds behind to take silver, and Norway trailed by 37.6 to win bronze. The win produced Ukraine’s first gold medal in two decades.

Canada halts U.S. hopes for gold

Jamie Benn scored the only goal Canada needed in its 1-0 win over the U.S. in a men’s ice hockey semifinal. For the third time since 2002 Canada dashed the American hopes for gold. In the other semifinal, Finland went up early against Sweden but eventually fell 2-1. Canada and Sweden will play for the gold on Sunday. The U.S. plays Finland for the bronze at 7 PST this morning.

American is youngest champ

American Mikaela Shiffrin, 18, became the youngest Olympic slalom champion, male or female, with her win in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. That mark was previously held by Paoletta Magoni of Italy, who won gold at the 1984 Sarajevo Games when she was 19.

Marielle Thompson of Canada edged teammate Kelsey Serwa for the gold in women’s skicross. The 1-2 finish was the third for Canada in freestyle skiing events in Sochi. The others came in men’s and women’s moguls. Canada also won gold and bronze in women’s slopestyle skiing, and picked up a silver in the men’s halfpipe, for a total of nine freestyle medals.

Canada routed Britain 9-3 to win its third straight gold medal in men’s curling. The championship gave Canada a sweep of the curling titles in Sochi. The Canadian women won their first curling title on Thursday.

Ahn makes it a record eight

In short track speedskating, Viktor Ahn of Russia won gold in the men’s 500. Ahn, who was born in South Korea and became a Russian citizen in 2011, has a career record of eight short track medals. In addition to winning the 500, he anchored the gold-medal winning Russian 5,000 relay team on Friday. He also became the first skater to win all four individual short track events at the Olympics. The U.S. team won silver in the relay, ending a medal drought for the American speedskaters. The long track team failed to get on the podium in 12 events, and the U.S. had been shut out in the first seven events at short track. Also, Park Seung-hi of South Korea won gold in the women’s 1,000.

Two dropped after doping tests

The first doping cases have hit the Winter Games. Italian bobsledder William Frullani and German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle were kicked out of the games after positive doping tests. Frullani was in the four-man bobsled race, which begins today. Sachenbacher-Stehle, a five-time Olympic medalist, failed to medal in five events in Sochi.