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Show < ne The Salt Lake Tribune 2002 OLtY MP ic Ms, Wednesday, February 20, 2002 ep NS % E G RK AMES CROSS COUNTRY SKIING — MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SPRINTS A Dramatic Debut yr Men:Norwegian ; ; Fends Off “Zorro’ 7 i BY BRIAN MAFFLY THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SOLDIER HOLLOW— For the sec ond time in two days of Olympic cross country racing, a Norwe chumped Cristian Zorzi out of a gold medal In the sprint finals Tuesday, the speedy Italian once again skated hard to the finish in a huge race onlyto see a black uni form, this time get there first. Germany's Peter Schlickenrieder fought into the tight finish to take silver by a 0.1 of a second. This left the bronze for the great sprinter Italian known as Zorro, who lost by less than a ski length in Sunday's relay against Norway SALT LAKE 2002 GOLD Tor Ame Hetiand Norway 2569 SILVER Peter Schlichenrieder 257 BRONZE Cristian Zora aly 2572 este, O15 Tuesday marked the Olympic debut of Nordic sprinting, which the medalists have dominated the past few seasons. “It's good for the sport that some- thing new is coming,” said Hetland, the reigning world champion. “It’s so easy, even the Americans can under: stand the sprint.” ‘The newdiscipline, akin to short track speedskating, puts four skiers on a sub-mile course to fight amongst themselves to see which two advance to the next round. Twice athletes got eliminated afier breaking poles, and the jury was kept busy considering as Photos by Al Hartmann/The Sali Lake ‘Mribune Tor Ame Hetland of Norway celebrates his gold medalfinish in the men’s 1.5K sprint event. Tuesday marked the Olympic debut of Nordic sprinting Women:Explosive Start Propels Russia’s Tchepalova to Win ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SOLDIER HOLLOW — Beckie Scott learned a SALT LAKE Russia's Julija soi to lose a sprint heat. The Canadian got blown out of her semifinal round after leading the whole way, but then won the consolation round bytaking up the rear of the four skier heat for most of the 1.6-kdlometerlap. Tehepal finals, but they wereoverruled. ‘Thefourth and last men’s finalist was Bjoern Lind of Sweden, while Ita ly's Freddy Schwienbacher won the consolation heatto takefifth. had no regrets about bis bronze medal. “This is myfirst Olympics and I've got two medals, not a bad start,” said Zorzi, who donned a black cape and mask after the race. “I'm haere for my German colleague.” Honoring a promise to his 5-yearold daughter, Schlickenrieder, 32, de clared the race his last, but his imme diate plan was to head to the nearest hot spring with a beer in hand. ee todraft. Too bad I didn't learn it sooner.” In the 16 heats (eight for men, eight for women) Tuesday, a strong lead-off strategy worked only once. In the women's final, World up champion Julija Tchepalova exploded out of the start and cruised to the gold medal without giving the other finalists a chance to mount a challenge. else who tried this took an early seat sprint Tchepalova, who happens to be the reigning ee ee ee Soldier Hollow after surviving two hotly contested heats to silver. ES ee,with serond,” she said. “I hadn't even thought of winning the race. | never thotwoul wi medals 0 Op bronze medalist, veteran wore.‘ited htte mg bleuobti tested lane changes by their Norwegian rivals in the men’s and women's “I'm disappointed now, but J think I'll be happier tomorrow,” Lindsaid. Zorzi, a 29-year-old skier who ex ploded from obscurity last season to become the top World Cup sprinter, BY BRIAN MAFFLY tough lesson in her quest for a second Olympic cross country medal in Tuesday's sprint races: Leading is frequent protests. Both German silver medalists pro. Olympic 30K champ, said the race was difficult, “Today was myluckyday.] took a lot of risks today.” Luck can be an important factor in cross county , Which has only been a World Cup points poten for the past few seasons andhad never beenin I've dreamed about for years.” NoU.S. women qualified for the heat races, al though Aelin Peterson was on track for a top 30 re German skis were clearly running the fastest Tuesday, which enabled Schlickenrieder and his teammates, both men and women, to repeatedly wormtheir way into good position on Soldier Hollow's 1,480-meter sprint course. in the third and final round, however, Schlickenrieder came into the stadium curve in the dreaded sec ond position. “Tor was tactically better than me,” Schlickenrieder said. “I made the best of my position, but Zorro was right behind me. The event started witha time trial, which no American came close to surviving, the Olympics before. The Russian said she feared sult before an embarrassingfall 10 meters short of thefinish. The young Americans took the defeat in stride and considered it a learning experience Another young American, 19-yearcld Kikkan paired together in the semifinals. Randall, is using these Olympics as practice for the urin Olympics in 2006, A bronze medalist in the pursuit, Scott has three top-six results, an Olympic performance that rivals “T've been dreaming about this race for two years,”said Randall, Tuesday's 44th finisher U.S. men had their worst Olympic showing Tuesday. Carl Swenson had the best results at 3st, mearly five seconds behind the slowest qualifier ‘Tessa Benoit had the best U.S. finish at 38th in the The University of Utah's Torin Koos Scott the most and was relieved they didnt get Bill Koch's famous outing in 1976. “I was disappointed. | wanted to be in the finals,” said Scott. “But to go home with one medal is what After a string of successful outings, S8-woman field, while University of Utah senior was 37th, Lars Flora 38th and Kris Kristina Joder was 48th Freeman 43rd. BIATHLON — MEN'S 30K RELAY: Today, 11 a.m. Soldier Hollow Makeup of Strong Teams, Not Individual Stars, Will Determine Final Winner BY JUDY FARYS THE SALT LAKE ‘TRIBUNE Americans, who have long relied on the relay for their best Olympic re sults, eee offinishes the reigning Winter Games 20K champion and a member of the 1998 silver-medal relay team. Possibly rounding out a Norwegian team is Higil Gjelland, who placed fifth io Sat ee race. The Germans continue to give all Again, looking to the World Oup standings for guidance, the French Austrian and Belorussian teams can not be counted out. On their way to Soldier Hollow, all three of those na tions had scared better results than ‘the German and Russian teams in any case, therace promises to be exciting because of the format as Sven Fischer, Ricco Gross and Frank Luck have nearly 200 World up relay medals between them. ‘The Russian Federation has ae strong relay racers, Rostoveev, # three-time World ‘ham, much as the field. © Bach racer faces 7.5K of sprints ai vided by two shooting stages, one Histoncal precede Chis bul f was or ur the Mickie Ages ‘that military petro rRoBS Came mio beg Skin ments ermaraHC Mm Fuse ane Scandmewsan avons 9 the 1500s and m Germany, Sentzetiant ane Austne three camtunes tater prone and one standing. The pressure to Win sometimes makes strong skiers hustle through the shouting with the idee of making up any iost tame with faster loops ‘Theproblem is that, after missing, oneaf the five targets in each stage. 2 acer must takethe tame to pluck and ‘use one of three reserve shells one # 2 tame until all five targets have been bit. And, if all Hve ane mot hit after the eighth shat, the racer must ski @ penalty loop for each missed tanget ‘that remains ee ee heee ee swappigy competition the 75auanute |