Miller strikes first gold, ice hockey hots up

Vancouver: Bode Miller of the United States, for so long the nearly man of Winter Olympics, slalomed from deep in the pack to win gold in the men’s super combined on Sunday as Vancouver braced for a day of ice hockey rivalries.

In the nail-biting Alpine skiing competition, Aksel Lund Svindal, who won gold for Norway in the men’s super G, had led after the downhill round and Miller trailed a distant seventh. But the American, silver medallist behind Svindal in the super G who had never won gold before in an otherwise glittering career, set the pace with a blistering slalom and Svindal was unable to finish after missing a gate. “I skied my ass off,” gasped Miller. “To execute the race the way I did today is something I will be proud of for the rest of my life.”Earlier, Russia’s Evgeny Ustyugov picked up the first gold medal of the day, shooting a flawless programme and sprinting away from the pack after the final shooting session to win the biathlon 15 km mass start on Sunday. Ustyugov, a soldier competing in his first Winter Games, cruised across the finish line at the Whistler Olympic Park 10.5 seconds ahead of Frenchman Martin Fourcade. Six medals will be decided on Sunday but in hockey crazy Canada the focus will be on how the world’s six top-ranked teams close out preliminary rounds with rematches of the last three Olympic finals.Grudge Matches The grudge matches started with Russia facing off against the Czech Republic in a rematch of the 1998 Nagano final. Russia were leading 2-1 after the second period here on Sunday. They turn the ice over to neighbours Canada and the United States, who played for gold in 2002 at Salt Lake City. Nordic rivals Sweden and Finland close out the day’s Olympic hockey action in a rematch of the 2006 Turin final. By design or coincidence, Olympic schedulers have delivered a rare treat for hockey fans that would be the soccer equivalent of Brazil playing Argentina, Spain meeting Italy and England taking on Germany on the same pitch on the same day. Off the rink, other medals were due in the women’s 12.5km biathlon, men’s ski cross, women’s 1,500m speed skating and two-man bobsleigh. Bracing for record crowds, police asked liquor stores in the city centre to shut down early on Saturday in an attempt to head off bouts of public drunkenness before they take on Olympic proportions. “The strategy behind this is to stop the supply of alcohol to the streets,” the Globe and Mail quoted Vancouver Police Constable Jana McGuinness as saying. “We’re seeing people replenishing their stock at nearby liquor stores and then openly consuming the liquor in the streets.” Bureau Report