Sports

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — In a matchup few oddsmaker would have predicted, a powerhouse Russian squad will face off on Sunday against an upstart German team in a battle for one of the ice hockey world’s most precious prizes: an Olympic gold medal.

The Russians last won a gold medal in hockey in 1992 in Albertville, France, in the first Winter Olympics of the post-Soviet Union era. As the Soviets, they won seven gold medals in nine games from 1956 to 1988.

For the Germans, a win would mark their first gold medal ever in ice hockey.

The Russian men, playing as the Olympic Athletes from Russia because of a doping ban, have long been seen as a favourite in a tournament being played without NHL players for the first time in 24 years. 

Nicknamed the Big Red Machine, it is stacked with top home-grown talent built around a core of ex-NHL all stars Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk — both household names in a country in love with the sport. 

It has been on a tear since dropping their first game of the Olympics to Slovakia, outscoring its next four opponents 21-3.

“We’re here just for one reason and I think we deserve to be in the final so we’ll see, the best team will win,” said Kovalchuk, who has scored five goals to become the top-scoring Russian Olympian of all time.

“That’s an elite team,” US coach Tony Granato said of the Russians, who beat his team 4-0 in the preliminary round. “They could give 20 NHL teams a run for their money.”

But Germany? A team which players and coaches concede playing a game that suffers as a distant second or third fiddle to the country’s sporting passion, football, they snuck up on everybody.

They dropped their first two games of the tournament and could have gone away quietly. Instead they started winning when it mattered and found themselves in the play-off. 

First it took down Sweden, whom it had never beaten on Olympic ice, to make the semifinals and then it edged Canada, another team it was yet to conquer in the Olympics. They will now play in their first-ever gold medal game. 

“Sounds crazy right?” German coach Marco Sturm said after his team’s win on Friday night. “I think it really helped us to play the top teams early on, Finland and Sweden.”

“You know we learned from it. We lost some games but we learned from it. Everyone felt it. We grew as a team and that’s just the result. I’m very proud of my guys.”

Meanwhile, Ester Ledecka became the first person in Winter Olympics history to capture gold medals in both Alpine skiing and snowboarding, when she won the snowboard parallel giant slalom on Saturday to go with her stunning Alpine super-G gold.

The 22-year-old Czech was superb throughout and defeated Germany’s Selina Joerg in the final by 0.46 seconds to become the fifth person to win gold in two different sports.

Three of the four athletes to have won in different sports in the past did so in the closely related fields of Nordic combined and cross-country skiing, while Russian Anfissa Reszova did so in biathlon and cross country.

Never before has the seemingly unbreachable divide between the old classic of the Olympic Games, Alpine skiing, and the popular modern sport of snowboarding been breached by an athlete winning gold in both.

“The best satisfaction is really that I could be here on both and win both,” said Ledecka.

“It was a great feeling, every run was a great feeling, it was something very special. I will think about this moment until the end of my life.”

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Anna Gasser stood at the top of the big air ramp on Thursday, caught in two minds ahead of her crucial final run. In the end, the Austrian snowboarder changed her planned trick and was rewarded with the first Olympic gold medal in the event.

Gasser, who finished 15th in the slopestyle event last week, put down a 96.00 with the final run of the day to snatch gold away from American Jamie Anderson.

The Austrian’s combined score of 185.00 from her two best runs relegated slopestyle champion Anderson into silver with a 177.25 total, while New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott took the bronze with a combined 157.50. 

Gasser said deciding to go with something different for her third run had been key.

“I was standing up there and I knew I had the silver and I only could win and I was like, ‘No, I’m going to go full risk and if it works out then I deserve this medal,’” she said.

“Thankfully it worked out.”

The gold will go some way to making up for the Austrian’s disappointment in the slopestyle, where high winds prevented any of the riders from laying down two clean runs.

Gasser said the slopestyle should have been postponed and that Anderson was the only one who wanted it to go ahead.

The big air event is making its Olympic debut in Pyeongchang and sees snowboarders hurtle down a ramp standing at 49 metres with a maximum slope angle of 40 degrees and perform spins and tricks to impress the judges.

The women’s final was brought forward to Thursday as high winds are forecast for Friday, with the men’s final scheduled for Saturday.

Anderson, who became the first woman to win two snowboarding medals at a single Olympics, said she was happier to win the big air silver medal than she was defending the slopestyle title she had won in Sochi four years ago.

“It feels better because we have great conditions and everyone was able to ride their best, so it feels rewarding,” she said. 

Sadowski-Synnott was another who took a risk with her final jump and, while she could not pull it off perfectly, she was satisfied that she had given it a go.

“I’ve never done that trick before, but it’s the Olympics, so I wanted to do something crazy,” said the 16-year-old, who won New Zealand’s second ever Winter Olympics medal. 

Barely two hours later, another 16-year-old New Zealander, Nico Porteous, won his country’s third when he took bronze in the ski halfpipe.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is edging closer to allowing Russia to march behind their national flag at the Winter Games closing ceremony, sources said, in a move Moscow hopes will mark the end of its ostracism from world sport.

Sources familiar with the matter at the Pyeongchang games, where Russians are competing as neutral athletes under the Olympic flag, said only a minority of IOC officials did not want to restore Russia’s national status for the ceremony on Sunday.

A decision to reinstate Russia would likely face criticism from international athletes and anti-doping officials, given Russia was hit by a fresh doping scandal only this week at Pyeongchang, involving a medal-winning curler.

But in Russia, it would be perceived as a powerful symbol of its rehabilitation as an Olympic nation and as a vindication of its stance that it was unfairly targeted by doping accusations.

“There is a group within the IOC who do not want them to come back for the closing ceremony and obviously the doping case in curling is not good for Russia,” one source said.

“But I think this group is a minority and it is relatively small.”

Some IOC members have privately argued the curling case is a minor infringement that alone does not warrant excluding Russia from flying the Russian flag in the ceremony, sources said.

The IOC declined to comment.

AMMAN — Jordan plays India on Friday in their third Asian Group C qualifiers for the FIBA Basketball 2019 World Cup.

Jordan tops Group C after they beat Lebanon 87-83 and Syria 109-72. Lebanon beat India 107-72 and Syria beat India 74-57 in earlier matches.

The national team will face Syria on February 26 in Amman. Out of 16 competing teams 12 teams (the top three teams from each group) will move to the second round following which seven teams (the top three teams from each group and the best 4th), in addition to host China, will move to the World Cup set for August 31, 2019 which will include 32 teams.

The Jordanian squad is striving to get into competitive form after a rough year that saw internal strife among the governing body of the game, ending with the resignation of the Jordan Basketball Federation Board, and a transitional care-taking body of former players and marketing experts taking over until a new board is elected in the coming year.

Fans pin their hopes that the qualifying group will provide Jordan the chance to move to the FIBA Basketball World Cup finals. Last year, Jordan took third place in the West Asian Basketball Association (WABA) as Lebanon was crowned champs. The top four qualifiers then played at the 29th FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon where Jordan finished at a disappointing 8th place as Australia won the title, Iran came second and South Korea third.

As of 2017, the Asia Championships and the FIBA Oceania Championship merged into a one tournament to be known as the FIBA Asia Cup. It will now be held every 4-years.The tournament will determine the composition of the joint FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup. 

Support for Jordan’s second most popular sport is seen as below par by most observers, leading to a decline in the game locally and less competitive on the regional scene although Jordan reached the World Championship in 2010 — and was the only Jordanian team to actually reach a world championship in a team sport alongside the Junior team in 1995.

A look back at Jordan’s basketball record in the past decade saw Jordan first winning the West Asia title in 2002. That was only repeated in 2014, when Jordan managed to win the WABA title for the second time in the absence of both the Lebanese and senior Iranian teams and represented the West Asia zone at the 5th FIBA Asia Cup (previously known as the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup between 2004 and 2010 and FIBA Asia Cup from 2012 to 2014). 

China, as well defending FIBA Asia Championship titleholders Iran had automatically qualified. The champion was given an automatic berth to the following year’s FIBA Asia Championship. Qatar was Stankovic Cup/Asia Cup champ in 2004, Jordan in 2008, Lebanon in 2010 and Iran in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

In WABA 2010, Jordan finished second behind Iran and qualified to the 26th FIBA Asia Championship where, for the first time in the country’s history, Jordan reached the final, but lost the chance qualify to the 2012 Olympic Games after losing the final 70-69 to China. Jordan then played at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for men but was eliminated. The OQT gave Asia’s second and third teams a chance to qualify to the London Games basketball event. 

In 2016, Jordan beat Lebanon to clinch second place at the WABA to advance to the FIBA Asia Challenge where they finished third.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Alina Zagitova took the lead in women’s Olympic singles figure skating with a world record short skate on Wednesday, giving her a strong chance of becoming the first Olympic Athlete from Russia to win gold in Pyeongchang.

Zagitova’s routine to “Black Swan” featured three triple jumps, including a triple Lutz and triple loop combination, and was awarded 82.92 points.

“I’m happy to have a clean skate and really grateful to myself for that,” the 15-year-old said via a translator.

“I don’t think it was my best, I can be better. My next goal is to of course have a clean free skate.”

Should she win gold in the final on Friday, Zagitova will be the second youngest to do so. America’s Tara Lipinski was also 15 when she topped the podium in Nagano in 1998, but was about a month younger than Zagitova.

Her compatriot Evgenia Medvedeva, who set a world record before Zagitova broke it about 15 minutes later, was second on 81.61 points. Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond was third on 78.87.

“It was not my best but it was okay,” Medvedeva told reporters. “Every day I see Alina working so hard and she did her best today,” added the 18-year-old who trains with the same coach as her compatriot.

Medvedeva was for a long time favoured to top the podium in Pyeongchang, but suffered a broken foot which reduced her training time and she lost for the first time in two and half years in January when she was beaten by Zagitova at the European Championships.

“I was calm performing the routine, the game will go on. I am happy with setting a new personal record,” Medvedeva said.

“I’m good friends with Alina, I practise together with her and talk with her all the time.”

Olympic Athletes from Russia have yet to win a gold medal at the games, but both skaters shrugged off the prospect of changing that.

“I’m trying not to think about medals,” Medvedeva told a news conference. “My goal is to have a clean free skate and be satisfied with myself inside.

“It’s not that I want to get out on the ice to prove anything, I just want to skate cleanly,” Zagitova said.

Both women said they are the best of friends — until they strap on their skates.

“Evgenia and I are very good off the ice, but during the time on the ice and during competitions, I personally get this feeling of rivalry,” Zagitova said. “It’s not bitter or personal, but it’s there.”

Japanese skaters Satoko Miyahara and Kaori Sakamoto were in fourth and fifth places.

“I strongly wanted to do well today,” said Miyahara.

“We’re not done yet. I hope to continue to do well in the free skate.”

Mirai Nagasu of the United States came into the event with high expectations, but fell on her triple Axel after becoming the first American to nail it in the Olympics during the team competition and she bobbled her triple loop to end up ninth.

“Today wasn’t my day, but my triple triple was still pretty good so I’m happy about that,” Nagasu said. 

Meanwhile, Sofia Goggia shed the chaotic “crazy horse” of her reputation and embraced her inner Samurai to give Italy its first women’s Olympic downhill champion on Wednesday. 

Described as the “crazy horse” of the Italian team by manager Massimo Rinaldi, and “crazy, in a good way” by German rival Viktoria Rebensburg, Goggia found her own unique way to describe what athletes usually call being “in the zone”. 

“I knew this was my day,” she said. “When I saw on the gondola the sun rising up, I felt good. I put my boots on and I was really centred, you know? 

“I paid attention to every little detail, moved like a samurai. Usually I’m pretty chaotic [but] I focused on all the tiny things I had to perform to do my downhill. 

“It was not about the medal, it was about my downhill. Afterwards, you turn your head and see your time and how the other racers have done.”

The 25-year-old had clearly rediscovered her natural effervescence as she upstaged Lindsey Vonn in the American great’s final run in the blue riband event of the Olympic programme.

AMMAN — Wihdat have a chance to take their lead further when they face Ramtha on Friday in the highlight of Week 16 matches kicking off over the weekend.

The match will be held without fans following fan violence in their 2-2 draw with Faisali. Minimal fines by the Jordan Football Association (JFA) and the one match fan ban were deemed too little as a way to stop deteriorating sporting

 spirit, violence and damage of public property at stadia.

Wihdat beat Hussein 1-0 last week and took the lead, as Ramtha stumbl

ed to a 0-0 draw with Jazira who remained third and next play Baqa’a who beat Yarmouk 1-0.

Faisali beat Shabab Urdun 1-0 and stayed 4th ahead of their match against That Ras, which will also be held without fans. Manshieh beat That Ras 1-0 and next play Aqaba.

Shabab Urdun are fifth and next play Hussein while Ahli who beat Aqaba 2-1 to stay 

6th ahead of their match against Yarmouk who are in last place.

So far this season, reigning league and Jordan Cup champs Faisali beat Jazira to win the 35th Jordan Super Cup. Wihdat beat Jazira to win the JFA Shield. In the Jordan Cup, Jazira ousted Faisali while Shabab Urdun eliminated Wihdat to reach the final.

Last season, Faisali won their 33rd league title after a four year break and combined it with the Jordan Cup. Ahli beat reigning league champs Wihdat to win the Super Cup, Shabab Urdun beat Faisali to win their second Shield title after the first won in 2007. Sarih and Sahab were relegated and replaced by Aqaba and Yarmouk from the First Division.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir claimed their second Olympic gold medal with a brilliant free dance on Tuesday, edging to the top of the podium by less than a point and breaking the world record into the bargain.

Skating last to “Moulin Rouge,” the pair embraced and grinned on the ice after their dynamic performance that had the audience roaring. 

They won with a total score of 206.07, eclipsing the world record that had been set just moments before by French pair Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who finished on 205.28.

“We don’t know what the future holds quite yet but it definitely feels like we’re getting close to the end of our career,” Moir told OBS, the official Olympics broadcaster. 

The pair had previously said this would be their last Olympics and hinted that retirement from competition — this time for good — might be on the cards soon.

“We’re just proud of our accomplishments at these Games. The goal was to win two golds but it’s a really intense competition,” Moir added.

“We have such respect especially for Gabriella and Guillaume. We’re pretty happy with how things turned out, that’s for sure.”

The Canadian pair, who won gold in Vancouver eight years ago, have dominated the event since they returned to competition after retiring ,following a silver at the Sochi Games four years ago. They also have a team silver from Sochi and gold at Pyeongchang, won last week.

They made a comeback late in 2016 and powered to a number of world records with only one defeat along the way.

That loss — in the Grand Prix Final in Japan last December — was to Papadakis and Cizeron, and prompted the fiercely-competitive Canadians to return home and tweak their programme in response.

Papadakis and Cizeron struggled in their short programme on Monday after the top of Papadakis’s costume came loose, and were 1.74 points behind the Canadians entering Tuesday’s free dance.

The pair’s ethereal free dance had the audience at the Gangneung Ice Arena clapping and set a new world record for both the free skate — they scored 123.35 and topped the Canadians — and the total score.

World record

Virtue and Moir broke that record fewer than 15 minutes later, when they scored 122.40 in the free programme.

“We are really proud of what we did today,” Cizeron said. “We did the best we could on the ice and it was a very emotional moment and we’re really proud of that silver medal.”

Papadakis said Tuesday’s performance had , made their Olympic debut special.

“Today we did something we never thought we could do. We’ve never skated that way before,” she told a news conference. 

“To do that in our first Olympics is really something that we’re proud of.”

American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani, known as the “Shib Sibs”, won bronze after entering the free dance in fourth. They finished on 192.59.

“I am so proud of what we accomplished,” Maia told reporters.

“To have four skates on Olympic ice that we can be extremely proud of and to come away with two Olympic medals for Team USA and ourselves and everyone that has supported us, it’s almost indescribable.”

Alex said the experience fulfilled their dreams.

“It was amazing to finally have that Olympic moment because four years ago in Sochi we left with a lot of experience, but still yearning to have that really special moment on Olympic ice that we’ve grown up watching.”

Play-off sport

South Korea qualified for a place in the Olympic women’s curling semi-finals with a 9-6 win over the United States on Tuesday, as Canada’s hopes of defending its gold medal hung by a thread following a 7-5 loss to China.

A near-capacity crowd at the Gangneung Curling Centre erupted in wild cheers when the US walked over to shake hands after the South Koreans scored a pair in the ninth end to leave them top of the standings with a 6-1 win-loss record.

Kim Eun-jung’s foursome became the first Korean rink to reach the Olympic semifinals and they could be followed into the last four by Japan (5-3) which continues to occupy a play off spot despite an 8-6 loss to Britain.

“We found out we made history, but we’re not satisfied with only just this,” Korean coach Kim Min-jung said. “We will do better in the rest of the matches.”

Substance violation

Norway edged Slovenia 2-1 in overtime on Tuesday to win a spot in the quarter-finals of the men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament, earning its first Olympic win and a matchup against a fearsome Russian team.

Alexander Bonsaken fired a wrist shot past Slovenia’s Gasper Kroselj after the puck had popped out to him from a scrum in front of the net in the sudden-death period.

The loss for the Slovenians came after one of their players had been suspended for a substance violation.

Slovenia, which has had three of its four Olympic games go into overtime, was the first on the board, with Jan Urbas scoring on a first-period powerplay on an assist from captain Jan Mursak while Norway’s Ludvig Hoff was off for hooking.

Norway, winless in three group-stage games, levelled it finally in the third when Martin Roymark sent a pass across the goal crease and Tommy Kristiansen tapped it past Gasper Kroselj.

It was only the third goal scored by Norway in the tournament so far, and heading into the game were the second-lowest scoring team after South Korea, which has just one.

The game started right after the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Slovenian forward Ziga Jeglic had tested positive for a banned substance and would be suspended for the rest of the Olympic Games.