Day 1 roundup: Germany skies to two-gold start

Germany, still smart from one-gold loss to Norway four years ago, started off strongly on the first competition day of the Turin Winter Olympics on Saturday.

German men swept the first two golds from biathlon and Nordic combined but the Olympic dream was dashed for one team member when a sports court thrown out her appeal to return to competition.

American skater Chad Hedrick, watched by U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, stormed home first in the men's 5,000m speed skating, while Canada's Jennifer Heil won the day's last gold in the women's freestyle moguls.

Michael Greis, 20, won the men's 20km biathlon in 54 minutes, 23 seconds, upsetting biathlon king Ole Einar Bjoerndalen for the first title awarded in Turin.

Norwegian Bjoerndalen, who swept the four biathlon golds in 2002 and had one from Nagano in 1988, finished 16 seconds behind Greis but 52.9 ahead of the 36-year-old teammate Halvard Hanevold, who took the bronze.

"It was always very difficult to beat Bjorndalen, but it's not impossible. I'm happy to have won," said Greis.

Georg Hettich added a second gold for Germany by winning the Nordic combined individual where Finland's Hannu Manninen had been expected to rule.

Hettich, 27, led the ski jumping section and hang on to his lead in the cross-country skiing against a stiff assault from Austria's Felix Gottwald.

Hettich's time was 39:44.6, 9.8 seconds ahead of Gottwald, who added a silver to his three bronzes in 2002, and a further 6.4 clear of bronze medalist Magnus Moan of Norway.

Speedskater Hedrick kicked off his assault at five golds, a feat achieved by his compatriot Eric Heiden in 1980, as he nabbed the 5,000m title in six minutes, 14.68 seconds, ahead of world record holder Sven Kramer and Italian Enrico Fabris.

Freestyle skier Jennifer Heil landed the women's moguls gold, denying defending champion Kari Traa of Norway a page of history.

Heil, 22, right on her way to the 2006 World Cup title, earned 26,50 points, while Traa, 32, came short of becoming the first twice-straight Olympic champion in any freestyle discipline after scoring 25.65 for a silver.

France's Sandra Laoura won bronze with a mark of 25.37.

The German team was mixed with good and bad news as the Court of Arbitration for Sports rejected cross-country gold hopeful Evi Sachenbacher Stehle's appeal against a five-day suspension, which ruled her out of a Sunday event.

Saachenbacher Stehle was among the 12 cross-country skiers suspended by the International Ski Federation on Friday. Tests showed the athletes had abnormally high red blood cell count.

The Turin Olympics is expected to be a three-way rivalry. Germany has vowed to top the final gold standings as it did in 1998, but will have to overcome opposition from Norway and Russia.

Source: Xinhua