BEIJING (AP) — A roundup of gold medals from Saturday, Feb. 12, at the Beijing Games:
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CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
WOMEN'S 4x5KM RELAY
The Russian cross-country skiing team started strong and finished strong Saturday in the women’s four-person relay, winning another Olympic gold medal.
Yulia Stupak broke away early with nine women chasing. On the next leg, Natalia Nepryaeva was chased down by Katharina Hennig of Germany.
The Germans briefly took the lead on the last lap, with Russian skier Veronika Stepanova just behind Sofie Krehl. But Stepanova pulled away on the final climb and won in 53 minutes, 41 seconds. Germany took silver, 18.2 seconds behind. Sweden edged Finland for bronze.
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SKELETON
WOMEN'S
Germany has a new sliding champion. Hannah Neise has never won a World Cup medal. Or a medal at the world championships. Or a medal from the European championships. But she has the Olympic gold medal now.
Neise is the Olympic skeleton women’s champion, a bit of a surprise winner. The 21-year-old who won the junior world title last year became the first German woman to capture the gold medal in Olympic skeleton by rallying in the final two heats at the Beijing Games on Saturday night.
Jaclyn Narracott of Australia was second. Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands was third.
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SKI JUMPING
MEN'S LARGE HILL
Marius Lindvik of Norway has won Olympic gold in ski jumping on the large hill by holding off Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan.
Lindvik jumped 140 meters Saturday on his final jump and earned 296.1 points overall to become the first Norwegian to win the event since Toralf Engan in 1964.
Kobayashi earned silver after winning on the normal hill on Sunday. Karl Geiger of Germany finished third.
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SNOWBOARD
MIXED TEAM SNOWBOARDCROSS
Lindsey Jacobellis won her second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, teaming with 40-year-old Nick Baumgartner for the title in the new event of mixed snowboardcross.
The 36-year-old Jacobellis took gold earlier this week in the women’s event; it came 16 years after a late showboat move as she was cruising in for an apparent win cost her the title at the Turin Games.
The Italian team of Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli won silver and the Canadian duo of Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine won gold.
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SPEEDSKATING
MEN'S 500M
Gao Tingyu thrilled the home crowd in Beijing by becoming the first Chinese man to claim an Olympic gold medal in speedskating, winning the 500 meters.
Gao added to the bronze medal he took in the 500 at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. He skated in the seventh of 15 pairs, setting an Olympic record of 34.32 seconds.
The silver went to South Korea’s Cha Min Kyu, whose time of 34.39 gave him a matching medal to the silver he won four years ago in Pyeongchang. Wataru Morishige of Japan took the bronze in 34.49.
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The Associated Press
