Amazing Maze strikes double gold

SOCHI: Tina Maze struck double Olympic ski gold on Tuesday while the stark political realities of the Sochi Games were exposed by the arrests of members of the high-profile Pussy Riot punk group.
Maze bagged her second title after sharing the downhill gold by edging Austrian arch-rival Anna Fenninger by a hairsbreadth seven-hundredths of a second in the giant slalom.
In tricky weather conditions that included heavy snow, torrential rain and fog, the 30-year-old Slovenian clocked a combined total of 2min 36.87sec over the two runs in Rosa Khutor.
“This season’s plan was to show my best here. My focus in training was on the Olympic Games,” said Maze, who won two silvers, in super-G and giant slalom, at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Defending champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany took bronze, a further 0.20sec adrift while famed violin virtuoso Vanessa Mae marked her Olympics debut with a 67th place finish, a massive 50.10sec behind Maze.
Down on the Black Sea coast, the political controversies that had once threatened to consume the showpiece event nudged back into the spotlight.
Two members of Russian group Pussy Riot who were released from prison late last year said they had both been arrested in downtown Sochi on charges of theft.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were arrested in the center of the host city over accusations of stealing from a local hotel but were freed later in the day.
The pair had been in Sochi for two days on a visit aimed at recording a new performance opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Tolokonnikova wrote on her Twitter account that she and Alyokhina had been arrested, with several other people, and piled into a police van.
“When we were arrested, we were not performing any kind of action, we were just walking around Sochi,” she tweeted.
Away from the political tit-for-tat, it was business as usual at the Games with seven gold medals in total being decided.
Netherlands speed skater Jorrit Bergsma dumped more 10,000 meters heartache on compatriot Sven Kramer by taking an upset gold in a blistering Olympic record time on Tuesday as the Dutch swept another Adler Arena podium.
Bergsma clocked 12 minutes, 44.45 seconds for his 25 laps, smashing the previous mark by a huge 14 seconds and ending only three seconds shy of Kramer’s world record set seven years ago on the high-altitude oval in Salt Lake City.
Pre-race favorite Kramer cited “too many small injuries” after claiming silver, 4.57 seconds off Bergsma’s time, with compatriot Bob de Jong almost 23 seconds back from the winner.
South Korean defending champion Lee Seung-hoon was a distant fourth after starting fast alongside Kramer but fading badly.
The Dutch took their speed skating medal haul to 19 out of a possible 27 with their fourth sweep of the podium and fifth win from nine races in a show of dominance not seen before at a Winter Olympics. The three Olympic medals pushed them to 101 in the sport’s all-time list.
Bergsma, who took bronze in the 5,000m on the opening day of competition, was blown away by his upset victory.
“It is a fantastic feeling, I knew with my current shape I could do it, but these are the Olympic Games,” he told reporters after taking a congratulatory call from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
On the slopes of Rosa Khotur, Frenchman Pierre Vaultier emerged from the fog to win a thrilling men’s snowboard cross race, just two months after tearing ligaments in his knee.
The 26-year-old held off surprise package Russian Nikolay Olyunin to take gold.
Norway took gold and silver in the large hill Nordic combined, dealing best with rainy conditions in the 10km ski phase.
Joergen Graabak won gold with his compatriot Magnus Moan taking silver 0.6sec behind. Bronze went to Fabian Riessle of Germany.
South Korea regained the women’s short track 3,000m relay gold, four years after their Vancouver medal hopes were dashed by disqualification.
Shim Suk-Lee passed Li Jianrou heading into the final turn to give the Koreans Olympic gold for the fifth time in the past six Olympics. Defending champions China were disqualified.
Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen held off a desperate late charge from the fast-finishing Martin Fourcade of France to take gold in the men’s 15km biathlon mass start in a photo finish.
Svendsen slowed up as he raised his hands in victory just before crossing the line but he had apparently failed to notice Fourcade, who flung himself across the finish.
Both were given the same time of 42min 29.1sec but Svendsen was awarded the gold by a whisker on the photo. Fourcade was aiming for his third gold at Sochi after winning the pursuit and the individual. Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic took bronze.
Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, seeking a record 13th medal at Winter Olympic Games, will have to wait until the relays after coming in 22nd place.