South Korea, good at only one sport, jumped over traditional
winter sports powers including Norway on the gold medal tally at
the Turin Olympic Games on Saturday.
The Asian country swept two short track speedskating golds
Saturday night to make it three in all, overtaking Norway, Canada,
Switzerland, Italy and Sweden in the number of golds.
Ahn Hyun-soo, 1,500m winner on Monday, nudged ahead of
compatriot Lee Ho-suk to take the 1,000m crown in one minute and
26.739 seconds. Lee finished second with American Apolo Anton Ohno
in third place.
In the women's 1,500m final, 17-year-old Jin Sun-yu clocked 2:
23.494 for the top honor. Her teammate pocketed the silver with the
bronze going to Chinese Wang Meng, 500m winner on Wednesday.
Olympic history was rewritten as Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Janica
Kostelic emerged as the most titled Olympic Alpine skiers of all
time and Shani Davis became the first black athlete to win an
individual gold at the Winter Olympics.
Norwegian Aamodt and Croatian Kostelic clinched their fourth
Winter Olympic gold, winning the men's super-G and the women's
combined respectively.
Aamodt posted a winning time of 1:30.65 in his last Olympics,
beating 1998 winner Hermann Maier of Austria and Switzerland's
Ambrosi Hoffmann.
Kostelic won the storm-delayed women's combined event, a half
second ahead of Austrian Marlies Schild and Sweden's Anja
Paerson.
World record holder Shani Davis from the United States nabbed
the men's 1,000m speedskating title, following in the history-
making footsteps of American bobsledder Vonetta Flowers, who in
2002 became the first black Winter Olympic champion in any sport in
the two-woman event.
Davis timed 1:08.27 to beat fellow American Chad Hedrick by 0.
27 seconds while Dutchman Erben Wennemars, the 2003 and 2004 world
champion in 1,000m, placed third in 1:09.32.
As thrilling as the men's 1,000m final, the men's biathlon 12.
5km competition saw France's Vincent Defrasne overtake five-time
Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen over the last meters for the
gold.
The Frenchman finished 2.7 seconds clear of the Norwegian, with
German Sven Fischer picked the bronze.
German biathlete Kati Wilhelm lifted her third Olympic gold with
a solid win over teammate Martina Glagow and Russian Albina
Akhatova in the women's 10km pursuit.
Russia came from behind to win the women's cross country skiing
team relay, edging defending champion Germany to second place.
Italy won a surprise bronze.
Austrians finished 1-2 in the individual large hill ski jumping,
with Thomas Morgenstern beating teammate Andreas Kofler to the gold
by 0.1 point.
Norway's Lars Bystoel, who won a gold on the smaller of the two
hills at Pragelato last Sunday, gained the bronze.
The United States tops the gold tally with seven golds, with
Germany and Russia each gathering six.
(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2006)