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Canada claim ice hockey gold

Viktoria Rebensburg comes home for gold © Getty Images

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Day 14 in pictures

Canada are halfway to a dream double in the ice hockey after their women's team beat United States 2-0 in the final on Thursday.

The Americans had scored 40 goals on their way to the gold medal match but Canada's goalkeeper Shannon Szabados saved 28 shots for a shut-out at Canada Hockey Place, while Marie Philip-Poulin was the hero at the other end, scoring two first-period goals to set up a lead that would remain throughout the game.

It was the third straight gold medal for the women, who now hand all the pressure of a nation's expectations over to the men, who will play Slovakia for a place in the decider on Friday.

Finland fought off Sweden, literally, for the bronze medal in a spiteful game that ended 3-2. The decisive goal came in overtime after the two sides had come to blows earlier in the contest.

Viktoria Rebensburg proved to be the queen of the giant slalom as she took Alpine Skiing gold for Germany.

Rebensburg, the former world junior champion, clinched victory by 0.04 of a second to nudge Germany momentarily top of the medal table, although she had to endure a final run from Austria's Elisabeth Goergl before she could celebrate victory. Goergl led by 35 hundredths of a second from Rebensburg after their first runs, but she quickly fizzled out in the opening section of her second effort to settle for bronze.

Tina Maze of Slovenia had also bettered Rebensburg's first run, and she produced an aggressive top section again on Thursday before losing momentum to take silver.

Great Britain's Chemmy Alcott finished 27th after posting a combined time of 2:29.94, which was 2.83 seconds behind winner Rebensburg. Alcott completes her alpine skiing events on Friday in the women's slalom.

"I felt like I really knocked the door down. I didn't make a mistake, I just skied too hard," said Alcott. "I'm disappointed because it didn't happen today, but I really enjoyed it. It was a bit of a bad day at the office. Everybody has them, but you just don't want it at the Olympics."

Marit Bjoergen is proving to be the star of the 2010 Winter Olympics after she picked up her third gold medal of the games in the women's 4x5km relay. Bjoergen anchored Norway home 24.6 seconds ahead of Germany in second place.

Bjoergen, who already owned two gold medals and a bronze, set off on the anchor leg under heavy pressure from the Italians, for whom Silvia Rupil produced a wonderful ski. Sabina Valbusa was on their final leg but she could not maintain the challenge, with Italy eventually slipping outside the medals.

Norway were in safe hands with Bjoergen though, who established an 11-second lead in just 1.7km, giving second-placed Germany no hope. Claudia Nystad, who claimed sprint gold earlier in the week, held off the challenge of Aino-Kaisa Saarinen as Finland settled for bronze, their second medal of the games.

Karoliina Rantamaki was the hero for Finland as she scored early in overtime against Sweden to secure the bronze medal in the women's Ice Hockey 3rd/4th place play-off. Danijela Rundqvist had earlier forced overtime for Sweden after cancelling out Michelle Karvinen's strike for 2-2, but Rantamaki ensured Finland were not to be denied as they triumphed 3-2.

United States landed a memorable one-two in the nordic combined men's individual LH/10km CC, with Bill Demong and Johnny Spillane scoring gold and silver respectively. Austrian Bernhard Gruber took bronze after earning the No.1 bib with a colossal jump of 127 metres. Spillane had the second furthest leap and Demong only the sixth, but his second-best race time helped him overcome the deficit and take gold by a margin of four seconds.

Belarus have their first gold of the 2010 Games thanks to Alexei Grishin's superb effort at the men's aerials. Jeret Peterson of the United States came in second by a fine margin of just 1.2 points across two jumps, while Liu Zhongqing snared a bronze for China.

The best jumps of each round went to Canadians, but each failed in their other jump, giving the medals to the more consistent performers on the day.

The women's curling final will be contested by Sweden and Canada after they saw off the challenges of China and Switzerland in the semi-finals.

Switzerland ran the hosts all the way as they reached the final end just 6-4 down, but captain Ott could only find a single as Canada progressed 6-5 in front of a raucous home following. Things were far more comfortable for Sweden, whose captain Norberg claimed a match-clinching three at the eighth end to set up a 9-4 victory over China.

Canada's hopes of a curling one-two are well and truly alive after the men also progressed to the decider after beating Sweden 6-3. Canada's foes will be Norway after they led all the way in their 7-5 victory over European rivals Switzerland.

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