Olympics: All downhill for favourites

SNOWBASIN - Austrian policeman Fritz Strobl stole the show at the Winter Olympics yesterday, sloping off with the gold medal in the blue-riband event of the Games, the alpine skiing men's downhill.

Strobl, a 29-year-old with a sound if unspectacular record, zipped down the Grizzly piste at Snowbasin to snatch victory by just 0.22s over Norway's Lasse Kjus, silver medallist at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano.

The overwhelming favourite, Strobl's compatriot Stephan Eberharter, had to settle for the bronze.

Strobl put a superstitious spin on his unexpected triumph.

"Here I had room 111 and I came first. In Nagano, I had room 11 and I came 11th. So somehow it fits together."

Strobl, 29, who had never won a medal in either Olympics or world championships, was another of the Austrians to profit from the absence of compatriot Hermann Maier.

Maier, a double gold medallist from Nagano, could not recover in time after a motorcycle accident in August.

There was another major upset at the hill ski jumping.

Swiss student Simon Ammann stunned even himself as he beat hot favourite Sven Hannawald of Germany into second place.

Hannawald, who this season became the first jumper to win all four competitions in the annual Four Hills series, produced the longest jump of the day, 99m, with his second and last effort but it was not enough to beat Ammann.

The cool 20-year-old, who had taken a shock lead after the first round with a 98m leap, responded with another remarkable 98.5m jump to clinch a gold medal few had expected.

Hannawald's expected main rival, Poland's Adam Malysz, took the bronze.

Salt Lake City could hardly have asked for more gripping battles on the second day of competition at the 16-day Games.

Nor could Utah have prayed for better weather, as spectators basked in glorious sunshine on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

The first gold medal of the day went to Finland's Samppa Lajunen, who won the individual Nordic combined after a brilliant victory the day before in the 15km cross-country skiing.

For Lajunen, third overnight after the ski jumping, it was a long-awaited individual gold after winning silver four years ago in Nagano and taking silver in the last two world championships.

It was Finland's first gold medal in the individual event since Heikki Hasu won in St Moritz in 1948. For good measure, another Finn, Jaakko Tallus, took silver ahead of Austrian Felix Gottwald.

Germany's Claudia Pechstein smashed her own world record to win the 3000m speedskating title as the challenge of rival and team-mate Anni Friesinger backfired.

A jubilant Pechstein timed 3min 57.70s to win, beating her previous mark by just over 1.5 seconds.

Friesinger, who had missed the world mark by 0.13s and who looked set for silver, saw her medal hopes dashed by the final pair to skate as Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands (3min 58.94s) and Cindy Klassen of Canada (3min 58.97s) took silver and bronze.

American Kelly Clark provided a dramatic finale to the women's snowboarding halfpipe yesterday, winning the first gold of this Games for the host nation on the last run of the final.

She was the only one of the top five to improve her score on the second run, recording 47.9 points. France's Doriane Vidal took silver with her first-round 43.0 and Switzerland's Fabienne Reuteler won bronze with her initial score of 39.7.

Clark, the former world junior champion, was lying second behind Vidal after the first run, but got the best mark of the day on her second attempt as the partisan crowd roared her on, the Guns N' Roses' song Welcome to the Jungle as a blaring backdrop.

* Bobsledder Matt Dallow will undergo a fitness test this week to see if he can start as brakeman in New Zealand's two-man bobsleigh team.

Dallow, 30, cracked a bone in his leg in a training fall last month but has resumed some physical training before the bobsleigh competition starts next weekend.

New Zealand have five men at Salt Lake City for the two- and four-man bobsleigh contests. Dallow had been the frontrunner to team with Alan Henderson in the two-man sled.

The New Zealanders can complete six training runs over three days this week, and Dallow is being given every chance to prove his fitness.

Team chef de mission Geoff Balme said Dallow would have a fitness test and if he passed that, he would train with Henderson on Friday (NZT).

"Obviously, if Matt doesn't pass his fitness test that narrows the field. Mark Edmond's the obvious replacement, but he's not the only replacement."

Official training begins on Thursday (NZT) and the final combination must be named when the draw is held on Saturday night.

The bobsleigh competition involves two runs on Sunday and two on Monday.

- AGENCIES