A roundup of gold medals from Saturday, February 5, at the Beijing Games:
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BIATHLON
MIXED RELAY
Norway won gold in the biathlon mixed relay, beating France and the Russian team in the first biathlon event of the Beijing Olympics.
Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway, Quentin Fillon Maillet of France and Eduard Latypov of the Russian team left the range close together after the last round of shooting and raced for position until the final stretch, when Boe sprinted for the win.
Norway, which came into the relay as the World Cup leader, also got strong performances from Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Tarjei Boe. But they trailed early in the race when Tiril Eckhoff struggled.
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CROSS COUNTRY SKIING
WOMEN'S 7.5KM + 7.5KM SKIATHLON
Cross-country skier Therese Johaug of Norway won the first gold medal of the Beijing Games in the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon.
Johaug fought wind and frigid temperatures to win by skiing away from a chase group of four.
Russian athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, the current overall World Cup leader, pulled away from the group on the last climb to take the silver. Teresa Stadlober of Austria followed just behind for the bronze medal.
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SPEED SKATING
WOMEN'S 3000M
Irene Schouten gave the mighty Dutch a gold in the first speedskating event of the Beijing Winter Games, breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 3,000 meters. Skating in the last of 10 pairs, Schouten turned in a blazing final lap to post a winning time of 3 minutes, 56.93 seconds.
That broke the previous Olympic mark of 3:57.70, set by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida held on for the silver in 3:58.06. The bronze went to Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann in 3:58.64.
