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15.02.2006 - Svetlana Zhurova Outstrips Chinese for Gold

russian version

Svetlana Zhurova Outstrips Chinese for Gold

TURIN, Italy -- Russia's world sprint champion, Svetlana Zhurova, sparkled in her two races to clinch the women's 500-meter speed skating gold at the Turin Olympics on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the dark side of the Games surfaced when a Brazilian athlete was sent home in shame, having failed a doping test.

It was a bleak day too for Bode Miller. The American Alpine skier was disqualified from the combined event after straddling a gate in the first leg of the slalom.

But the Italian sun shone brightly on Sweden, which won its first Winter Olympic gold medal since Lillehammer in 1994.

Zhurova, who at the age of 34 decided to return to competition following the birth of her 2-year-old son, had a combined time of 1:16.56.

Wang Manli of China won silver and Ren Hui , also from China, clinched bronze with a stunning second race.

This was Russia's second long-track speed skating medal in two days after Dmitry Dorofeyev won silver in the men's 500-meter event on Monday.

Armando dos Santos, a member of Brazil's four-man bobsled team, was banished from the Olympic Village when the result of a January test was disclosed, showing he had tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.

"As soon as we found out, he was sent home. Today, he's at the airport, going back to Brazil," Brazilian ice sports team leader Eric Maleson told Reuters.

The Winter Games are also over for Sergei Dolidovich. The Belarussian cross-country skier, who was suspended for five days last week for a high haemoglobin value, had his "start prohibition" extended for another five days.

Dolidovich, whose reading was still too high and was not cleared to race as a health safeguard, had been scheduled to take part only in the men's team sprint which was raced on Tuesday.

Dolidovich was one of 12 athletes to have had overly high values. Four were cleared on Monday, while the others have not yet been tested again.

On the sporting field, Sweden was celebrating its first Winter Olympic gold medals for 12 years when its men and women triumphed within 20 minutes of each other in the cross-country skiing team sprints.

Former world sprint champion Thobias Fredriksson and teammate Bjoern Lind surged to victory in the men's race just after Anna Dahlberg and Lina Andersson had triumphed in the women's.

A traditional powerhouse of Winter sports, Sweden failed to win a single gold at either the 1998 Nagano Olympics or the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

"Two golds for Sweden. We couldn't ask for any more," said Fredriksson, who shook off a fever on the eve of the Games to take part. "The sun is shining on us today."

Lind said he and his teammate had been pepped up by the success of the women.

"We saw Lina cross the line first, and Thobias and I just stood and screamed with joy," he said.

There were no screams of American joy after Miller failed to deliver gold in the combined skiing event.

The combined leaderboard had initially showed the overall World Cup champion nearly one second ahead of Austrian world champion Benjamin Raich after the first slalom leg.

Television replays, however, showed he had straddled the 42nd gate and he was disqualified.

Miller, silver medalist at the last Olympics, was leading going into the slalom after setting the fastest time in the downhill leg earlier on Tuesday.

Olympic champion Kjetil Andre Aamodt had earlier opted out of competing in the combined.

Aamodt, who injured his knee when he finished fourth in Sunday's downhill, stayed in his hotel and concentrated on getting fit to defend his super-G title on Saturday.

Women's downhill Olympic champion Carole Montillet, injured in a practice crash, will decide at the last minute whether to defend her title on Wednesday.

French women's head-coach Lionel Finance said a final decision would be made on Wednesday morning after the Salt Lake City gold medalist has completed her warm-up for the race.

Speed skater Dorofeyev set the early pace on Monday and skated two blazing heats to hold off South Korean Lee Kang-seok by .02 second.

"Finally we came through. I am so happy," he said. The last Russian speed skating medal was Sergei Klevchenya's bronze in the 1,000 at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.

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26.02.2006

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26.02.2006

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26.02.2006

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23.02.2006

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21.02.2006

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