Korea's Yu-Na takes skating gold

Kim Yu-Na produced four minutes and seven seconds of dazzling perfection to claim figure skating gold.

Yu-Na's flawless routine scored her an enormous 228.56 and enhanced her celebrity back home in South Korea, where tens of millions follow her every move, and where she earned £5million in endorsements last year alone.

Behind her, rival Mao Asada of Japan landed the first pair of triple axels in Olympic history, but failed to make up ground on Yu-Na, who had established a world record lead after Tuesday's short program. Asada scored a distant 205.50.

The night belonged equally to Joannie Rochette, who took bronze less than a week after the sudden death of her mother.The Canadian somehow created a performance of grace and poise out of tragic adversity, and could barely hold back tears as the Coliseum erupted at the end of her free skate.

Historically the ladies' figure skating has provided one of the highlights of the Winter Games, creating legends like Katarina Witt and Oksana Baiul. Tonight in Vancouver, these extraordinary athletes did not disappoint.

"I still can't believe the score that I received," said Kim. "I'm really surprised. It's almost as close as the men's score. I still can't believe my performance, and I can't believe this day has finally come for me."

Yu-Na is the most famous face in her homeland. If the expectation needed heightening, there was the desire to out-shine neighbours Japan. The two countries are barely on speaking terms and angrily contest sovereignty of the tiny Liancourt Rocks in the Sea of Japan.

In the Coliseum press centre, Korean and Japanese photographers sat apart. Then they over-spilled the bleachers seeking the shots which would enhance the status of either Yu-Na or Asada as a national heroine.

No-one, though, could deny that it was as much Rochette's night - one of those nights when bronze meant as much as the battle for Olympic gold as she skated to one of sport's most remarkable triumphs.

Yu-Na's perfect short program, which had scored her a world record 78.50, had already virtually assured her of gold. Utterly flawless again tonight, on her final spin it sounded like the whole of Seoul had packed the Pacific Coliseum with cheers.

Yu-Na's total score was so big that Asada could not have dreamed of over-hauling her rival. As it was, despite nailing her historic pair of triple axels at the start of her programme, two small slips meant the margin was huge.

The stage was then set for Rochette, who despite an early slip skated beautifully to Samson and Delilah, scoring a total of 202.64 which was enough to maintain her third place and secure heroic bronze.

Vancouver 2010: Day 11 Round Up

Hosts Canada finally had cause for celebration at the expense of the USA.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skated a flawless free dance to claim gold at the Pacific Coliseum on day 11 of the Vancouver Olympics.

Leading after the first two components of the competition, Virtue and Moir's interpretation of Mahler's Symphony No 5 thrilled the home crowd and impressed the judges.

The pair were awarded 110.42 points for a total score of 221.57 to spark wild celebrations on the day after the USA had pulled off a shock victory over Canada's men's ice hockey team.

Americans Charlie White and Meryl Davies had to settle for silver while Russian pair Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin took the bronze.

Moir insisted the pair had plenty more to come. Asked about being compared to British legends Torvill and Dean, he admitted: "It's a very flattering comparison, but I don't think we have that kind of resume yet.

"We were well trained and we were ready. But to have that moment with the home crowd and with each other, and to have all that hard work pay off, is just amazing."

Virtue added: "It wasn't right away that we thought we'd come to Vancouver and compete at the Olympic Games, let alone win a medal, and let alone go for the gold medal."

There was some cheering news for Canadian ice hockey fans after their women booked a semi-final spot with a 5-0 win over Finland at Canada Hockey Place.

Cherie Piper and Haley Irwin gave Canada a 2-0 lead in the first period and Megan Agosta added a third in the second period.

Irwin's second and one for Caroline Ouelette wrapped up victory in the third.

There was a hat-trick for Monique Lamoureux as the USA thrashed Sweden 9-1 in a women's play-off for a semi-finals spot.

Switzerland beat Russia 2-1 in the fifth/sixth place play-off and China beat Slovakia 3-1 in an 8th/7th place play-off.

Gregor Schlierenzauer produced a monster 146.5m leap to give Austria gold in the men's team ski jumping competition in Whistler.

Schlierenzauer saved the best to last with his giant jump and almost lost his footing on the landing.

The 20-year-old, a double bronze medallist in individual events, went into a sitting position and almost touched down with one hand but somehow avoided any contact with the ground to ensure the jump stood.

The loss of style points for the awkward landing was not enough to prevent the Austria team, which also included Wolfgang Loitzl, Andreas Kofler and Thomas Morgenstern, from taking the gold from Germany with a record points total of 1107.9.

The Germans had to settle for silver with a total of 1035.8 while Norway claimed the bronze, posting 1030.3.

Germany struck cross country skiing gold in the ladies team sprint.

Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad posted a winning team of 18 minutes, 3.7 seconds.

Silver went to Swedish pair Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag, 0.6 seconds back with Irina Khazova and Natalia Korosteleva claiming the bronze 4.0 seconds adrift.

Norwegian pair Petter Northug and Oeystein Pettersen won the men's cross country skiing team sprint.

Northug overhauled Germany's Axel Teichman, who surged into the lead early on the final lap, just before the finish as the Norwegians completed in 19 minutes and one second.

Teichman and Tim Tscharnke won the silver for Germany with Russian pair Nikolay Morilov and Alexey Petukhov taking the bronze.

In the men's curling round robin competition Canada clinched their semi-final spot by beating the USA 7-2 and Norway also booked their place by thrashing France 9-2. In the remaining early matches Switzerland beat Sweden 7-3 and Germany edged past China 7-6.

In the evening matches Great Britain thrashed Germany 8-2 to edge towards a semi-finals spot, China beat the USA 11-5 and France edged out Denmark 6-5 after an extra end.

Canada's women curlers booked their place in the semi-finals with a 6-2 win over Sweden and their were round robin wins for Russia over China (7-4), Switzerland over Japan (10-4) and Denmark over Great Britain (9-8).

In freestyle skiing China's Jia Zongyang topped men's aerials qualifying on Cypress Mountain with a total score of 242.52.

US thrashes Norway in Ice Hockey

Detroit Red Wing Brian Rafalski scored twice as the United States beat Norway 6-1 in ice hockey at the Vancouver Olympics.

There was a shock in Group B where highly-fancied Russia were beaten 2-1 in overtime by Slovakia.

Lindsey Vonn missed out on an Alpine gold medal double as a crash in the slalom section of the super combined competition handed the title to Germany's Maria Riesch.

Vonn held a 0.33-second lead over best friend Riesch after the morning downhill but the American, with a downhill gold medal already in the bag, straddled a gate and fell on the lower section of the course.

That meant Riesch took the gold while Vonn's American team-mate Julia Mancuso claimed her second silver of the Games after finishing second to Vonn in Thursday's downhill.

Sweden's Anja Paerson picked herself up after her spectacular downhill crash to win a remarkable bronze.

Paerson, whose participation was in doubt after she was flipped into the air on the downhill course, stood seventh after today's downhill section.

But she produced an impressive slalom run to claim the bronze.

Vonn had struggled with a shin injury coming into the Games and she hinted it could make her doubtful for the remaining three Alpine skiing events. The super-G is next up on Saturday.

"It's killing me," she said.

"It hurts so bad. It was really tough on my shin. I hope the next day off will help get it healed."

She added: "I was disappointed but I went down fighting. I knew that Maria and Julia had good runs so I had to give it everything I had and, in slalom, anything goes."

Riesch knew she had won the moment Vonn fell but the German had no qualms about celebrating her friend's fall.

"To be honest, in the first moment you are just happy you won the race," she said.

"But then, I think she was happy that I was slow yesterday. Of course I felt bad for her but she has her gold medal from yesterday.

"Today was a bad day for her, yesterday was a bad day for me. That's sports."

Evan Lysacek won gold for the United States in the men's figure skating, overtaking Russia's Evgeni Plushenko with a spectacular performance in the free skating.

Turin champion Plushenko had led after the short programme with Lysacek in second place.

But the Chicago-born 24-year-old claimed top spot on the podium by just over a point with his routine to Sheherazade by Russian composer Nikolai Rimski Korsakov during which he reeled off eight triples, including two axels.

"I've been waiting for a clean free skate all season," said Lysacek.

"I tried not to get too excited after each jump. I wanted to pump my fist every time."

Speed skater Christine Nesbitt lived up to her billing as favourite for the women's 1,000m by winning Canada's third gold medal of the Games.

But Nesbitt only just edged out Annette Gerritsen of Holland, beating the Dutchwoman by 0.02secs. Gerritsen's compatriot Laurine van Riessen took the bronze medal.

"Today really I didn't have a great race, physically I could feel I wasn't skating well. But I just kept going until the end and it paid off," said Nesbitt.

There was double gold for Norway in the biathlon - Emil Hegle Svendsen in the men's individual 20km and Tora Berger in the women's individual 15km.

Svendsen edged out compatriot Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Sergey Novikov of Belarus who shared the silver medal.

Berger beat Kazakhstan's Elena Khrustaleva into second place while Darya Domracheva of Belarus was the bronze medallist.

The Norwegians have now taken four medals from the six biathlon events contested so far.

Britain's Amy Williams holds top spot at the halfway mark of the women's skeleton competition at Whistler Sliding Center.

Williams, 27, produced two blistering runs to hold a 0.3 seconds lead from Germany's Kerstin Szymkowiak with Canada's gold medal favourite Mellisa Hollingsworth in the bronze medal position.

Martins Dukurs of Latvia leads the men's skeleton at the same stage, 0.26 seconds ahead of Canada's Jon Montgomery.

Alexander Tretyakov of Russia is in third, 0.84secs off top spot.

The Canadian men's and women's curling teams both seem in formidable form.

Kevin Martin's team continued their unbeaten run as they cruised to a 12-5 win over France while Cheryl Bernard's quartet maintained their 100% record with a 6-5 defeat of Germany.

Uneven match-ups continue to be the story of the women's ice hockey with the United States thrashing Finland 6-0 to cruise into the knockout stages on the back of three wins, 31 goals scored and one conceded.

In the same group, Russia beat China 2-1 but that was not enough to overtake Finland who advance to the semi-finals with the Americans.

Vonndergirl Lindsay scoops gold

Lindsey Vonn fulfilled her Olympic gold dream by sweeping aside her rivals in the women's downhill at Whistler Creekside.

A strong pre-race favourite despite a shin injury, double world champion Vonn flew down the course to post one minute 44.19 seconds, a mark her rivals never looked like challenging.

Vonn's fellow American Julia Mancuso took the silver with a time of 1min 44.75secs and Austrian Elisabeth Georgl claimed the bronze in 1:45.65.

Vonn, who crashed in training in Turin four years ago, savoured the moment after capturing the Olympic title.

"It's the best day of my life," she said. "It's awesome.

"It is a really bumpy challenging course and I nearly lost it at the top but I just kept it going and I am just so happy that I made it down."

It remains to be seen how many golds Vonn will go for having won the blue riband event, with super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super-combined still to be contested.

Several of Vonn's rivals - including Sweden's Anja Parson - did not make it down, suffering crashes which left the American grimacing with concern as she watched on.

Romanian Edith Miklos has to be strapped into a stretcher and airlifted off the mountain in a helicopter.

Vonn, the 16th starter in a 44-strong field, seized the lead which Mancuso had held.

Germany's Maria Reisch was expected to be a threat but she made no impact on the top part of the course and could only clock a disappointing 1:46.26 and finished eighth.