SPORTS Sunday, February 18, 2018 21 Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold celebrates after crossing finishing line (Pic courtesy: Xinhua) Yarnold defends skeleton gold Pyeongchang the first Briton to retain a Winter Austrian saw her drop out of the izzy Yarnold retained her Games title and also the first medal places. skeleton title and Laura Deas skeleton athlete to do so. Deas, from Wrexham, jumped claimedL bronze in Pyeongchang on “Honestly, after the last few years into bronze and Germany’s Great Britain’s most successful day the aim was to get to the Olympics, Jacqueline Loelling took silver, 0.45 at a Winter Olympics. I wasn’t thinking about medals,” seconds behind Yarnold as she set It took the British medal count on Yarnold, who also won gold at a track record to become Britain’s Saturday to three, after Izzy Atkin Sochi 2014, said. most decorated Winter Olympian. claimed a ski slopestyle bronze. “But to achieve that is the stuff Only figure skater Jeannette But short-track speed skating of dreams, as is sharing the podium Altwegg and skating pair Jayne medal hope Elise Christie crashed with Laura, who’s been amazing.” Torvill and Christopher Dean, in the 1500m and was taken to Yarnold went into the final run who have one gold medal and one hospital. 0.02 seconds behind leader Janine bronze each, also have multiple Yarnold, 29, is Flock, but a poor finish from the medals for Britain. (BBC) Ledecka earns Stoch retains large hill title Pyeongchang 136.5m, which was enough to clinch his shock victory olish ski jumping star Kamil Stoch third gold in the Winter Olympics. Pyeongchang mistake late in her run. held his nerve to retain his large Norwegian Robert Johansson zech Republic’s Ester Liechtenstein’s Tina Phill individual title in Pyeongchang. won another bronze medal after also Ledecka claimed Weirather took bronze Germany’s normal hill gold claiming third place in the normal hill aC shock victory in the while Vonn finished sixth. medallist Andreas Wellinger produced event. women’s super G as Veith had looked set to a jump of 142m, the biggest of the The jumpers have two rounds in American Lindsey Vonn become the first woman to final round, to take the lead with two qualifying and two in the final, with the missed out on a medal on defend an Olympic super G jumpers left. points from all four rounds combined her Olympic return. title until Ledecka’s run. But Stoch, 30, replied with a jump of to decide the final standings. (BBC) Ledecka, who is also set to Vonn is expected to Poland’s Kamil Stoch compete in snowboarding in compete in the downhill on Pyeongchang, won by 0.01 Wednesday. Choi Minjeong of South Korea (L) competes (Pic courtesy: XInhua) seconds ahead of defending Ledecka, 22, has never champion Anna Veith of finished on the podium in a Austria. World Cup ski event but set MEDAL TABLE Vonn, 33, competing at a blistering pace to win in Country Gold Silver Bronze Total her first Olympics since a time of one minute 21.11 2010 due to injury, made a seconds. (BBC) 1. Germany 9 4 4 17 2. Norway 7 8 7 22 3. Netherlands 6 5 2 13 4. Canada 5 5 5 15 5. United States 5 2 2 9 Choi claims S. Korea’s third gold Pyeongchang gold in Pyeongchang in the men’s hoi Min-jeong won the women’s 1,000m final, ahead of American John- 1500m short-track final to claim Henry Krueger and South Korean hostC nation South Korea’s third gold of Seo Yi-ra. Choi has won seven World the 2018 Winter Olympics. Championship golds but failed to medal Choi, the world record holder, during last year’s event, when Christie finished ahead of China’s Li Jinyu, became a triple world champion. while Canadian Kim Boutin took The 19-year-old, who was denied a bronze. medal after being disqualified in the Britain’s world champion Elise 500m final, broke away from the pack Christie crashed out of the semi-finals. with four laps to go to cross in two Slovakia’s Kuzmina Samuel Girard won Canada’s fifth minutes 24.95 seconds. (BBC) bags biathlon gold Marit Bjorgen Pyeongchang nastasiya Kuzmina led from start to finish ties medal record to win the women’s 12.5km mass start Pyeongchang Aevent at the Winter Olympics. arit Bjorgen has become the joint The Slovakian biathlete had already won most decorated Winter Olympian two silvers in Pyeongchang and burst into the Mof all time by leading Norway to victory in lead before shooting clean in her first three the women’s 4x5km relay. visits to the range. That helped Kuzmina, 33, Bjorgen, 37, battled it out with Sweden’s come home in a time of 35 minutes 23 seconds, Stina Nilsson over the final leg before Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic 18.8 seconds ahead of Darya Domracheva, the winning by just two seconds - in a time of (Pic courtesy: Xinhua) defending champion from Belarus. 51 minutes 24.3 seconds.