BEIJING (AP) — A roundup of gold medals from Saturday, Feb. 5, at the Beijing Games:
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BIATHLON
MIXED RELAY
Norway won gold in the biathlon mixed relay, beating France and the Russian team in the first biathlon event of the Beijing Olympics.
Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway, Quentin Fillon Maillet of France and Eduard Latypov of the Russian team left the range close together after the last round of shooting and raced for position until the final stretch, when Boe sprinted for the win.
Norway, which came into the relay as the World Cup leader, also got strong performances from Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Tarjei Boe. But they trailed early in the race when Tiril Eckhoff struggled.
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CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
WOMEN'S 15KM SKIATHLON
Cross-country skier Therese Johaug of Norway won the first gold medal of the Beijing Games in the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon.
Johaug fought wind and frigid temperatures to win by skiing away from a chase group of four.
Russian athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, the current overall World Cup leader, pulled away from the group on the last climb to take the silver. Teresa Stadlober of Austria followed just behind for the bronze medal.
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FREESTYLE SKIING
MEN'S MOGULS
Walter Wallberg of Sweden dethroned the so-called King of Moguls to take home the gold in the freestyle skiing men’s moguls.
The Swede looked almost in shock when his score of 83.23 flashed on the scoreboard, edging that of defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada late Saturday night. Wallberg picked up points for his speed over the smooth and technical skiing style of Kingsbury, who ended up with silver.
Ikuma Horishima of Japan took home the bronze.
Wallberg’s surprise victory interrupts the men’s moguls dominance of Team Canada, which had won the event in the last three Winter Games. This was the 21-year-old's first major win.
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SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING
MIXED TEAM RELAY
China won its first gold of the Beijing Games, emerging victorious in the mixed team relay at short track speedskating in the event’s Olympic debut.
Wu Dajing edged Italy’s Pietro Sighel by .016 seconds — or half a skate blade — to claim gold on Saturday night. Hungary earned bronze.
Qu Chunyu, Fan Kexin and Ren Ziwei joined Wu for the historic victory. China was the favorite coming in, having led the World Cup standings this season.
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SKI JUMPING
WOMEN'S NORMAL HILL
Slovenia’s Ursa Bogataj took Olympic gold in women’s ski jumping, floating 100 meters (328 feet) with 121 points on the final jump.
Katharina Althaus of Germany earned silver for the second straight Olympics and Bogataj’s fellow Slovenian Nika Kriznar took bronze. Japan’s Sara Takanashi had entered as one of the favorites, but finished fourth.
This was the third time women had jumped for gold in the Winter Olympics.
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SPEEDSKATING
WOMEN'S 3,000 METERS
Irene Schouten gave the mighty Dutch a gold in the first speedskating event of the Beijing Winter Games, breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 3,000 meters. Skating in the last of 10 pairs, Schouten turned in a blazing final lap to post a winning time of 3 minutes, 56.93 seconds.
That broke the previous Olympic mark of 3:57.70, set by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida held on for the silver in 3:58.06. The bronze went to Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann in 3:58.64.
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The Associated Press
