A cross-country retro

ByEurosport

Published 27/02/2006 at 08:43 GMT

With the Turin Winter Games wrapped up we take a look back over some of the highlights of the cross-country competition. Estonia's Kristina Smigun stormed to gold in the women's 10 kilometres and Pursuit while the Italian team offered the home fans very i

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Smigun got the ball rolling when she won gold for Estonia during the first women's event of the Games after she sprinted to overtake the talented Czech Katerina Neumannova in the final few metres of the women's 2x7.5km pursuit.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino 2x7.5 km M Pursuit Smigun

Image credit: dpa

Eugeni Dementiev of Russia timed his sprint cleverly for the final 100 metres to take Olympic gold in men's 30km double pursuit ahead Norway's Frode Estil in the silver-medal position, despite the Norwegian breaking his ski and pole during the mass start and completely fumbling the changeover from classic to freestyle technique.

Torino

Meyer drops case

08/02/2007 at 19:41

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING - 2006 - Torino - 30km Double Pursuit - Russia - Eugeni Dementiev

Image credit: Reuters

The Italian's Olympic medal collection started here when Pietro Piller Cottrer held his nerve down the final stretch to claim the bronze.

BEAT THAT

Smigun claimed her second gold medal of the Games and set the bar very high after charging down the final stretch to win the women's 10km classic ahead of Norway's Marit Bjoergen, who had recovered from a stomach bug to ski to silver, and veteran Norwegian Hilde G Pedersen in bronze.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2006 turin kristina smigun (1)katarina neumannova

Image credit: Reuters

With the bronze Pedersen entered the record books as the oldest women - at the age of 41 - to have won a medal at the Winter Olympics.

Not one to be outdone by his compatriot, Andrus Veerpaluu of Estonia successfully defended his Olympic title in the men's 15km classic race to give his country their third cross-country gold medal.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino - 15km C - Andrus Veerpalu

Image credit: Reuters

ITALIA, ITALIA

Piller Cottrer had set the tone with his bronze medal in the double pursuit but that was nothing compared to what happened next.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING - Pietro Piller Cottrer - Torino 2006

Image credit: Imago

Italy won their first cross-country skiing gold medal of the Turin Winter Olympics when the men triumphed in the 4x10km relay.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino Rel 4x10 km M - Italy relay team

Image credit: Reuters

Piller Cottrer, spurred on by his bronze medal, skied the lap of his life offering team-mate Cristian Zorzi a 13 second head start for the final leg.

'Zoro' Zorzi kept that lead to cross the line in front of the captivated thousands of Italian fans to claim the gold ahead of Germany and Sweden.

The Italian women also did the host nation proud in the 4x5km relay when they slid to podium and the bronze medal.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING Torino 2006 50 km Giorgio Di Centa

Image credit: Eurosport

It was Giorgio Di Centa, however, that gave the Italians the perfect ending to the Games when he claimed the last gold medal of the Olympic cross-country competition crossing the line first in the blue ribbon 50km mass start.

SWEDES SPRINT TO GOLD

Once again the Swedes showed the world that they are among - if not the - best sprinting nation to hit the cross country circuit in recent years.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino - Sweden team sprint - Lina Andersson

Image credit: Reuters

They echoed their previous World Cup exploits with a spectacular show of rapidity and team-work during the men's and women's events.

Lina Andersson powered home to give team-mate Anna Dahlberg a well deserved gold while Bjoern Lind doubled the medals tally with team-mate Thobias Fredriksson for the men with a last-minute burst to the line beating Norway's Jens Arne Svartedal and Tor Arne Hetland.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino - Sweden team sprint - Bjoern Lind

Image credit: Reuters

Lind went on to win gold in the individual sprints with compatriot Thobias Fredriksson picking up Bronze while Frenchman Roddy Darragon surprised all with an impressive silver medal performance.

A BRIGHT CANADIAN STAR

Canadian 22-year old Chandra Crawford outshone compatriot and medal contender Beckie Scott when she held off Germany's Claudia Kuenzel and Alena Sidko of Russia to claim gold in the women's 1.2km sprint competition.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino SP 1.2 km F Final - Chandra Crawford

Image credit: Reuters

It was one of the most unexpected and pleasantly surprising gold medals of the cross-country competition.

Prior to the Olympics Crawford's best result came in early February during the sprints in Davos, Switzerland, when she climbed onto the podium in third place but the 22-year old had yet to make her mark amongst the elite of the sport.

A RUSSIAN TEAM EFFORT

Natlia Baranova-Masolkina, Larisa Kurkina, Julija Tcheopalova and Medvedeva-Abruzova claimed the gold medal in the women's relay with four legs of mixed fortunes.

But it was Medvedeva-Abruzova's devastating attack 300 metres from the finish line which nobody could follow that seperated the women from the girls and she glided safely home to give Russia their second cross-country gold.

SUPER NEUMANNOVA

To close the Olympic show for the women's competition Czech Republic's Katerina Neumannova powered down the final straight to win her 'elusive' gold in the marathon 30km mass start.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino 30 km F Mst - Katerina Neumannova - Julija Tchepalova - Justyna Kowalczyk

Image credit: Reuters

Neumannova had previously won four silvers and a bronze medal in her four Winter Olympic outings, but never the gold.

Neumannova timed her attack well to beat Julija Tchepalova of Russia and Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk in silver and bronze positions.

FOUNDATIONS OF THE POWERHOUSE COLLAPSE

The Norwegian team had a disastrous Olympics Games compared to four years ago when they went home with 11 medals including four golds, three silvers and four bronzes.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino Bjoergen

Image credit: Imago

This time around the most celebrated cross-country nation collected a mere four medals and surprisingly no golds - the last time this happend was at the Calgary Games in 1988.

The Norwegian cross-country medal's tally consisted of three silvers and one bronze.

The team was dogged by illness from the start but bad decisions by the service team concerning type of ski wax and equipment on a couple of events during the diverse Italian weather conditions hampered chances of adding to the medals tally.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 2005-2006 Torino 2x15 km M Pursuit NORWAY Estil crash feature

Image credit: dpa

Hilde Pedersen and Jens Arne Svartedal both suffered stomach bugs at the start of the Games but the first to be seriously hit was gold-medal contender Marit Bjoergen when she had to quit the Pursuit event after only 6.6 kilometres.

But despite Bjoergen's recovery from illness and a honourable silver in the 10km classic the Norwegian skiing ace never found the kind of form that propelled her to number one in the World Cup overall standings at the start of the season.

CLICK HERE FOR: Olympic medals table

Torino

Norwegian coach resigns

18/04/2006 at 16:16

Torino

Di Centa elates fans with gold

26/02/2006 at 12:00

Torino

Last chance saloon

26/02/2006 at 08:55

Join 3M+ users on app

Stay up to date with the latest news, results and live sports

Download

Scan me