BEIJING (AP) — A roundup of gold medals from Sunday, Feb. 6, at the Beijing Games:
___
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
MEN’S 30KM SKIATHLON
Russian skier Alexander Bolshunov pulled away from the pack early to win gold in the 30-kilometer skiathlon.
Bolshunov, the World Cup points leader in distance races, crossed the finish line in one hour, 16 seconds. Bolshunov and Iivo Niskanen of Finland led the race through the first four classic ski laps but Russia’s Denis Spitsov passed Niskanen once they were on the freestyle legs.
Spitsov stayed out front and secured the silver, one minute, 11 seconds behind Bolshunov. Niskanen held on for the bronze two minutes back.
___
FREESTYLE SKIING
WOMEN’S MOGULS
Jakara Anthony of Australia has captured the women’s moguls title at the Beijing Olympics.
Anthony’s back flip with a grab at the bottom of the course sewed up the gold medal Sunday on the Secret Garden Olympic course. Her score of 83.09 edged American Jaelin Kauf, who had been poised to pick up the first gold medal for Team USA in China.
Russian athlete Anastasiia Smirnova earned the bronze while defending champion Perrine Laffont of France finished fourth.
The 23-year-old Anthony joins Dale Begg-Smith as the only Aussies to win the Olympic event. Begg-Smith earned his title at the 2006 Turin Games.
___
LUGE
MEN’S SINGLES
Johannes Ludwig of Germany is the Olympic champion in men’s luge, adding that to the World Cup overall title he won this season.
It’s the 11th time in 16 Olympics that a German man — counting the days of East Germany and West Germany in there — has won the luge title. Wolfgang Kindl of Austria was second and Dominik Fischnaller of Italy was third.
Ludwig led after all four heats. He set the tone for Sunday’s final two runs of the competition by setting a track record leading off the third heat, putting more pressure on everyone else in the field to catch him.
Nobody did.
___
SKI JUMPING
MEN’S NORMAL HILL
Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi won Olympic ski jumping gold on the normal hill.
Kobayashi jumped last and best, clearing 99.5 meters (326 feet) and had 129.6 points thanks to his graceful style from start to finish that won over the judges.
Austria’s Manuel Fettner won silver and Dawid Kubacki of Poland earned bronze.
___
SNOWBOARD
WOMEN’S SLOPESTYLE
Zoi Sadowski Synnott won New Zealand’s first gold medal in Winter Olympics history, stomping down a pressure-packed run on her last trip down the mountain Sunday to win the title in women’s slopestyle.
Sadowski Synnott went into her last of three runs trailing American Julia Marino but came up big.
She raised her hands in the air after landing, knowing what she’d done. Marino, who won silver, and bronze medalist Tess Coady of Australia knew it, too. They gang-tackled her at the finish line to celebrate.
___
SPEEDSKATING
MEN’S 5000 METERS
Nils van der Poel gave Sweden its first Olympic speedskating medal since 1988, pulling off a stunning comeback to win gold in the 5,000 meters at the Beijing Olympics.
Van der Poel was a big favorite coming into the event as the reigning world champion with an undefeated record in the distance events on this season’s World Cup circuit.
He lived up to the hype in the 12 1/2-lap race at the Ice Ribbon oval, turning on the speed at the end to overcome Patrick Roest of the Netherlands with an Olympic record of 6 minutes, 8.84 seconds.
Roest won silver and the bronze went to Norway’s Hallgeir Engebraaten.
___
More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
