SPORTS SATURDAY, FUBRUARY 22, 2014

SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS regains top status; Frenzel wins again KRASNAYA POLYANA: Joergen Graabak is unreal,” Graabak said after Norway leader this year with seven wins in 11 Steamboat Springs, Colorado - veteran delivered a long awaited Olympic gold edged Germany and 2006 and 2010 cham- events. But he pulled out of the last day of and brothers Bryan and medal for the nation that pioneered Nordic pion in the team event. training for the large hill and was a doubt- Taylor Fletcher - were sixth in the team combined, then added another victory for Norway has the most Olympic medals ful starter. He recovered to take his place event that they won silver in at . good measure to help Norway restore its in the sport - 12 - but Graabak’s gold was in the competition and led after the ski of the United States status in the sport. Four years after being the country’s first since 1998, jumping. But he a faded badly in the 10- won silvers on both the normal and large shut out of the medals at Vancouver, when won the individual kilometer cross-country race and finished hills in 2010 but has retired, and Demong Norway topped the and team events. Graabak’s teammate 10th. “I felt really much better than the last and Lodwick are in the process of doing medal standings at the Olympics picked up silver on the large competition,” Frenzel said after Germany the same. with two gold and four medals overall. hill, and got bronze on the finished second in the team event. Demong, 32, said he definitely won’t ’s timing wasn’t so good. normal hill behind Frenzel and Akito “My body felt today really good. For me be back at the 2018 Games as an athlete, After winning on the normal hill, he got Watabe of Japan. The medals certainly it was a perfect : two and the 37-year-old Lodwick, who com- sick and missed out on a medal in the indi- helped restore some recognition in the medals - one gold, one silver.” While peted in his sixth games and carried the vidual large hill competition. He recovered country known as the birthplace of the Norway picked up four medals they hadn’t US flag at the opening ceremony, plans to in time to help Germany to a silver medal sport in the late 1800s. won at Vancouver, the United States lost spend more time with his family. in the team event on the same hill. “We Frenzel’s illness didn’t hurt Norway. the four it captured in 2010. Defending “Certainly now we’re really going to see a had a bit of a rough patch in Vancouver ... The German athlete’s win on the normal champion Billy Demong of Park City, Utah, turnover, and I’m excited for that,” to be able to take the gold and also three hill fulfilled expectations - he won the finished in 31st place in the large hill. Demong said. “I think other guys deserve individual medals at these championships World Cup last season and is the runaway Demong and a trio of competitors from a chance.”— AP

Traditional rivalry Asada bows out of Sochi fans flames in US Games with pride intact LOS ANGELES: An ice hockey win with a whiff of Cold War nostalgia helped draw US fans’ focus from pre-Olympics problems to sporting prowess as they watched the Sochi SOCHI: Japan’s Mao Asada bowed out to post the third highest score in the ing and yesterday was a massive disap- Games unfold from afar. It was just a group stage win, but of Olympic competition with her head free skate behind only winner Adelina pointment,” Asada said on Thursday. “I the US men’s 3-2 victory over hosts Russia in a shootout held high, buoyed by a surge of support Sotnikova of Russia and South Korean owed a lot to those who supported me thriller helped shift a conversation that had seen sports over- following a fall in her short program that silver medallist Kim Yu-Na-lifting her to over the years and I wanted to pay them shadowed by fears of terrorism and concerns over the host left her medal chances in tatters. Asada’s sixth place overall. back with a great long program. I wasn’t nation’s human rights record. bid to give Japan a second figure skat- Asada, who won the silver medal at worried about the score. I had to fight The victory, which left Russian commentators complain- ing gold at the Sochi Games fell foul to the 2010 Vancouver Games, scored the inner fear in me.” “I may not be able ing bitterly about a disallowed Russian goal in the third peri- her trademark triple Axel jump on 142.71 points in the free skate for a per- to bring back an Olympic medal to od, had some US media harkening back to the United States’ Wednesday-leaving her in 16th position sonal best. “I was determined to carry Japan but I feel like I had the best per- 1980 “Miracle on Ice” triumph over the mighty Soviet Union after the first night of the competition. out what I’ve been working on all long. I formance I possibly could. team en route to gold in Lake Placid. In truth, the match-up of But she recovered strongly on Thursday wasn’t that sharp in practice this morn- “I’m obviously disappointed with teams both stocked with National Hockey League stars bore myself from yesterday but everything little resemblance to that David and Goliath clash. But it res- I’ve been practicing for the past four onated in the US sports consciousness in a way that other years bore fruit today. I like to think I’ve outstanding Sochi performances, including a podium sweep matured since Vancouver in my own dis- in the new Olympic sport of slopestyle skiing, could not. tinct way.” The Japanese skater said Sure, the slopestyle trio of Joss Christensen, Gus after her performance on Wednesday Kenworthy and Nick Goepper were given their due in Sports she received support from former Illustrated, which pointed out that they notched just the sec- coaches, friends and fans telling her not ond US podium sweep in Winter Games history. However, it to give up. “I felt really bad. I really want- wasn’t the young trail blazers who graced the cover of the ed to do my best for all the people who weekly magazine as the Olympics reached their halfway supported me,” she said. “I really wanted stage, but venerated Duke University basketball coach Mike to do well for all of them but I felt a lot Krzyzewski and his freshman star Jabari Parker. of pressure.” With US downhill queen Lindsey Vonn sidelined by injury The 23-year-old, who will compete at and Shaun White and Shani Davis denied in gold medal next month’s world championships in repeat bids, America was hanging its hat on men’s hockey. Japan, said she had not made up her The USA-Russia game was a boon to NBC as the US broad- mind about the future. “After the worlds caster grappled with the problem of delivering delayed cov- I haven’t made up my mind. I will do erage of the Games in the age of instant information. Four some shows and then see,” she added. years ago, NBC had the luxury of showing key events from Asada put her free skate on Thursday in Vancouver live in its prime time evening viewing period. the top five of her performances. “I’m still disappointed from yesterday Voicing outrage on Twitter (Wednesday). I’m still thinking about the This time around, those hours of evening coverage are medals. But later I will feel the happiness tape-delayed and fans have plenty of avenues for checking from today’s performance. results or seeing streamed coverage on the Internet. In a nod After some rest I will start to feel real- to the new reality, NBC is using its own cable channels-NBC ly great about today’s performance.” Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC-to offer live, or at least “plausi- Asada had been hoping to match bly live” coverage of some events. Yuzuru Hanyu, who won Japan’s first The move paid off when 4.1 million viewers tuned into men’s gold a week ago. The two-time watch the US ice hockey win over Russia on the first Saturday world champion is the only woman to of the Games-the audience climbing as high as 6.4 million attempt the difficult 3.5 revolution jump during the shootout to give NBCSN the most-watched half- in competition, but it is also her Achilles hour in its history.But the network came in for harsh criticism heal. It backfired on her in the team for its handling of alpine skier Bode Miller after the 36-year- event short program in Sochi when she old veteran won bronze in the super-G. Fans blasted inter- fell, and despite persevering she once viewer Christin Cooper as insensitive and disrespectful after again fell on the jump at the start of her SOCHI: Sweden goaltender Henrik Lundqvist makes a save during a men’s Miller broke down in tears when talking about his brother, routine to Chopin’s “Nocturne in E flat semifinal ice hockey game against Finland at the yester- Chelone Miller, who died in April. —AFP major” on Wednesday.— AFP day. — AP