6 gold medals up for grabs on day 7 of Sochi games
Colombian soldiers secure the site of an ambush by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas which left 11 soldiers dead, in the rural area of Buenos Aires, department of Cauca, Colombia, on April 15, 2015 (AFP Photo/Luis Robayo)Switzerland\’s Dario Cologna won has won the men\’s cross-country skiing 15 kilometer classic, the first of six gold medals being handed out Friday at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
It is the second gold medal for Cologna at these Olympics. Sweden\’s Johan Olsson took silver at Friday\’s event while Swiss skier Daniel Richardson won the bronze.
Also Friday, Alpine skiing star Ted Ligety of the United States is among the favorites in the highly anticipated men\’s supercombined.
Ligety is the reigning world champion in the event, which consists of one run of downhill and one run of slalom. France\’s Alexis Pinturault was also a favorite going into the event.
The men\’s figure skating competition will be decided Friday. Japan\’s Yuzuru Hanyu is currently in the lead after setting a new world record score in the short program Thursday. He leads three-time world champion Patrick Chan of Canada.
The event will be decided without Russian skating icon Yevgeny Plushenko, who withdrew after injuring his back in warmups Thursday.
In the women\’s skeleton, Lizzy Yarnold of Britain and Noelle Pikus-Pace of the United States are first and second heading into the final two runs for gold.
Gold medals will also be decided in women\’s freestyle aerials and women\’s individual 15 kilometer biathlon.
Norway leads the medal count with 13, followed by the U.S. and the Netherlands with 12 each. Host Russia is next with 11. Germany leads in gold medals with seven among its total of 10 medals. Switzerland\’s gold Friday put it in a second-place tie with Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and the U.S. for top honor medals.
Source: VOA and agencies
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