Riesch doubles up with slalom gold in Vancouver

(News Terupdate) - Germany's Maria Riesch added slalom gold to her super-combined title as her great friend and rival Lindsey Vonn went out on the first run at Whistler Mountain on Friday.

Riesch dominated the event as she set the fastest time in the first leg and easily held off Marlies Schild of Austria for a double triumph in Vancouver.

Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic finished with a bronze after being in second place first time down, but already 0.40 seconds behind Riesch.

Vonn, who has been struggling with a series of niggling injuries, missed a gate on the top third of the course and never looked likely to add to her gold in the downhill and super-G bronze.

But the poster girl of the Games said she had been pleased to win her first Olympic medals.

"I'm happy with my performance in Vancouver. I went out there fighting -- it just wasn't my day. I didn't want to give up, that's my personality," she said.

"The Olympics is every four years and I wanted to win," she added.

Riesch, the reigning world slalom champion, had a combined time of one minute 42.89 seconds to beat a charging Schild by 0.43 seconds overall with Zahrobska just over a second behind.

She was delighted to double up and help with the German team effort as they battle the United States and Canada at the top of the medals table:

"I did not dare to think about a second gold and now the German alpine team has three gold. Just crazy," she said.

But her younger sister Susanne ended the event in floods of tears after falling in sight of the finish while challenging for a medal and Riesch said some of the edge had been taken off her own victory.

"It was our biggest dream to be on the podium together. Susanne did everything for this race. So she is very upset," added the champion.

Biathlon

Norwegian legend Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won a sixth Winter Olympics gold medal as he anchored his country to victory in the 4x7.5km relay with Austria taking the silver and Russian in bronze.

It gives him a total of 11 Olympic medals at Winter Games, second only to his compatriot Bjorn Daehlie, who earned 12 in cross country skiing.

Bjoerndalen has had a mixed Games with only a silver in the 20km individual before going one better on Friday.

"My shooting was fantastic and I went fast and skied great. I'm really satisfied with my race. It was perfect " he said.

Ice hockey

The United States booked their place in Sunday's men's final with a 6-1 thrashing of Finland in the Canada Hockey Palace.

Ryan Malone put them ahead after two minutes and four seconds and further goals from Zach Parise, Erik Johnson, Patrick Kane (2) and Paul Stastny made it 6-0 by the end of the first period.

Antti Miettinen scored a consolation for the Finns in the third period with the U.S. set to meet hosts Canada in the final if they can get past Slovakia in the second semifinal.

Gold medal favorites Canada suffered a shock preliminary round defeat against the Americans.

Curling

Home hopes suffered a shattering blow in the women's final as they lost 7-6 to defending champions Sweden in a dramatic finish.

Canadian skip Cheryl Bernard had good chances to claim the gold in both the 10th and 11th ends but it was the greater experience of Swedish counterpart Anette Norberg that proved decisive to stun the capacity crowd.

Snowboarding

Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands beat Russian Ekaterina Ilyukhina in the final to take gold in the slalom event, holding her off by 0.02 seconds over the two runs.

Austria's Marion Kreiner grabbed bronze ahead of Selina Joerg of Germany.

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