Belarussian wins 12.5-kilometer mass start race to complete hat-trick of gold medals
Darya Domracheva of Belarus completed an unprecedented hat trick of Olympic gold medals in women's biathlon by winning the 12.5-kilometer mass start race on Monday. Domracheva, who also won the pursuit and individual race last week, took the lead for the first time after four minutes and stayed ahead of the field after the first shooting. She missed one target before finishing in 35 minutes, 25.6 seconds. Gabriela Soukalova of Czech Republic was 20.2 seconds behind for silver and Tiril Eckhoff of Norway finished 27.3 behind for bronze.
Domracheva is the first woman to win three biathlon gold medals at the same Olympics. Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen has the overall record, with four gold medals at the 2002 Salt lake City Games. Domracheva is also expected to compete in the relay, but Belarus is not among the favorites for gold. Retired Kati Wilhelm is the only other woman with three biathlon golds, but the German won them over two Olympics - the sprint and the relay in 2002 and the pursuit four years later.
Domracheva faulted on the fourth target in her final shooting, but as her nearest rival, Soukalova, also missed, the Belarusian could still carry a 14.7-second lead into her final 2.5K lap. She stretched that lead and crossed the finish line while waving her right pole above her head in celebration. One of the pre-race favorites, Tora Berger of Norway, fell and slid into the safety netting after crossing her skis two minutes into the race.
Berger stayed clean in the first shooting but missed four targets afterward and finished 1:42.2 behind Domracheva in 15th. More athletes fell because of the difficult conditions. Drizzle in the morning hours and fog until the afternoon softened the track, which had already been weakened by the mild weather last week.
Olga Zaitseva slid off course in a sharp right turn and the Russian had to hike back a few meters to pick up the pole she had lost. Elisa Gasparin of Switzerland also crashed. The race was in doubt for most of the day due to thick fog hanging over the mountains above Sochi, which led to the men's 15K mass start being postponed until Tuesday.
China in semis in men's curling
Sochi: The curling world has been waiting for years for China's men's team to fulfil its rich potential. It just might happen at the Sochi Olympics. The Chinese finally made a breakthrough at international level by beating Britain 6-5 in a winner-takes-all last game of the round robin to reach the Olympic semifinals on Monday.
China skip liu Rui, arguably the star player in the tournament so far, thrust his clenched right fist into the air when his rock settled in the button for the winning point in the 10th end. Given his statistics over the past week in Sochi - he's shooting at 88 percent accuracy- it was never really in doubt.
"The Chinese guy was on fire there," Britain skip David Murdoch said of liu. "It is tough when you are up against a skip who is making everything." The defeat bumped the British into a tiebreaker against Norway, which lost 5-3 to Denmark to miss out on advancing directly to the playoffs. Sweden and Canada already had qualified on Sunday.
The tiebreaker will be played Tuesday. liu has been part of a China rink that has been on the circuit for the past decade. The players' technique and dedication has never been in question but their strategy and big-game temperament certainly has, making them fall short in the top tournaments.
US women coast past Sweden 6-1 in ice-hockey
The work began before the U.S. women's hockey team reached the medal round, before it arrived in Sochi, before the roster was even selected. Four years ago, the Americans left the Olympics with a silver medal. And Julie Chu was determined to be back.
"When that buzzer goes off and it erupted in the arena and we fell short of our goal of being the best in the world, that hurts," the four-time Olympian said after the United States beat Sweden 6-1 on Monday to reach the gold medal game in Sochi. "The last four years, that's been our goal." Megan Bozek, Kendall Coyne and Brianna Decker each had a goal and two assists, and the Americans outshot Sweden 70-9 to clinch no worse than a silver medal.
Canada, a three-time defending champion that has played in every Olympic final, would have a chance for a fourth gold in a row with a victory over Switzerland later Monday. Not since the inaugural tournament in Nagano have the Americans beaten Canada.