Winter Olympics news

Hope, then despair

Italy's ice hockey team were licking their wounds after an expected 7-2 defeat by titleholders Canada.

The jetlagged Canadians, who had arrived in Turin just 24 hours earlier, got the contest off to a sluggish start against an energetic and motivated Italy, which had spent almost a year preparing.

After holding Canada to a single goal in the first period, Italy sparked dreams of an unthinkable upset when Bob Nardella levelled the score at 1-1, bringing the near-capacity crowd to their feet.

Aussie wins moguls

Dale Begg-Smith produced a magical run in the freestyle skiing moguls to win Australia's first medal.

"It's awesome. I obviously didn't see the other runs so I didn't know if it was a gold medal run but it was definitely one of my best," said the Canadian-born Australian.

Victory very sweet

Andreas and Wolfgang Linger erased painful memories of the treacherous Cesana luge track by winning the gold medal in the Olympic doubles competition.

The victory was particularly sweet for the younger Linger, Wolfgang, who fractured his left ankle and fibula in a crash here last year in a training run for an Olympic warm-up event that was eventually cancelled.

There were three crashes on the treacherous track yesterday and six before that, either in training or competition. Earlier organisers had insisted the track was challenging but "not particularly" risky.

Wind halts events

In the Nordic combined, the teams were left on ice after their event was postponed due to high winds.

Results from yesterday's first round of ski jumping, completed before the wind picked up, will stand meaning world champions Norway are ruled out.

Norway were unable to make yesterday's start after three of their four-man team fell ill.

Wang wins her gold

China's Wang Meng brought home the gold everybody expected her to win in the women's 500m short track skating.

Bulgaria's Evgenia Radanova did her best in the last metres of the race but the Chinese 20-year-old made it across just ahead, punching the air in glory.

Wang won all four World Cup 500 races this season and was favourite to win in Turin.

Radanova, who fell immediately after crossing the line, took silver for the second Olympics running. Canada's Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, seen as an outsider coming into the Olympics, took bronze.

- REUTERS