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Domracheva dashes to new biathlon success

Darya Domracheva of Belarus became the first woman to win three biathlon titles at the same Olympics when she claimed the 12.5km mass start gold medal at the Sochi Winter Games on Monday.

Belarus’ Darya Domracheva leaves the range as others shoot in the women’s biathlon 12.5km mass start. — AFP

Domracheva, who prevailed in the 12.5km pursuit and the 15km individual, took the early lead and never looked back, making only one mistake on the shooting range and skiing way too fast for the opposition.

Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic took silver 20.2 seconds behind after she also made a mistake on the range. Norwegian Tiril Eckhoff won the bronze, 27.3 seconds off the pace, after outsprinting German Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle in the final straight. Meanwhile, Alex Carpenter and Kacey Bellamy scored just 66 seconds apart in the first period as the United States crushed Sweden 6-1 on Monday to reach the final of the women’s ice hockey tournament. Amanda Kessel, Megan Bozek, Brianna Decker and Monique Lamoureux also scored for the Americans, who have now beaten Sweden 12 out of the past 13 times they have faced each other in major international games. “It’s awesome,” said American forward Lamoureux. “I think it’s something we were expected to do. We’ve been preparing for it for the last four years and putting in a lot of work.”

Earlier, thick fog shrouding the mountains at the Sochi Olympics forced organisers to postpone events on Monday.