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maltatoday SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2018 51 Sweden's Kalla wins first Pyeongchang gold Lim wins gold in 1500m to give hosts South Korea first medal Luge: Germany's Loch inches closer to golden hat-trick Sweden's Charlotte Kalla won the first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Saturday after powering away from the field to secure victory in the women's 7.5km + 7.5km skiathlon Sports SPORTTODAY OLYMPICS SOCHI Games champion Marit Bjoer- gen of Norway, who has decided to skip Thursday's 10km sprint race, took the sil- ver 7.8 seconds behind and Krista Parma- koski of Finland won the bronze. Kalla made her break midway through the last of the four laps, leaving Bjoergen to battle Parmakoski and Swede Ebba An- dersson for the podium places. It was the third Olympic gold medal for the 30-year-old Kalla, who won the 10km freestyle at Vancouver in 2010 and followed that up with a win in the 4x5km relay in Sochi four years later. "I'm very happy today, it feels incredible," a beaming Kalla told a media conference. With about a dozen racers close together as they made the switch from freestyle ski- ing to skating style, Kalla began evaluating when she would attack. "During the first skating lap I knew it felt very good, so my plan was to try to do something quite early on the last skating lap," she explained. "I didn't know exactly where Marit was, I knew that she was in the group some- where, so I just tried to focus on my performance and not evaluate what the others did." Kalla barely looked over her shoulder during the final three kilometres as she dug deep for victory. "There were thoughts about maybe what are the others doing, but I just tried to focus on my performance all the time and just look forward," she said, acknowledging that she had found it tough. "I know that I have been in the zone of pain many times in the summer and fall, and just looked forward all the time," she said. Silver medallist Bjoergren has de- cided not to participate in Thursday's 10km race, but said it had nothing to do with her performance in the skiathlon. "It's a decision I took a long time ago. I don't feel like I have a chance of a med- al, so that's why I made this choice," she told broadcaster Eurosport. IN an unusually crowded final with nine skaters, the 21-year-old took over after defending Olympic cham- pion Charles Hamelin fell out of the lead early and incurred a penalty. Lim finished first in 2:10.485. "I was overwhelmed be- cause it's my home coun- try," Lim told a news con- ference. Sjinkie Knegt of the Neth- erlands took silver, finish- ing 0.70 seconds behind Lim, while Olympic Athlete from Russia Semen Elistra- tov won the bronze. Hamelin, a pre-event fa- vourite, was looking to be- come the first short track speed skater to win a gold medal at three different Olympic Games but the 33-year-old Canadian, who had originally finished sixth, was given a penalty for impeding. Speaking to reporters af- ter his disappointing per- formance, Hamelin said it was difficult for him to tell whether he had deserved the penalty. "I made a mistake," he said. "It might have cost me a better position and even the race. I ended up at the back of the pack. In a race with nine skaters, you never want to end up in the back." Earlier on Saturday, South Korea's Choi Minjeong set an Olympic record in the women's 500m with a 42.870-second finish in her heat to qualify for the quarter-finals taking place on Tuesday. Canada's Marianne St Gelais, who won silver in the 500m in Sochi, finished first in her 500m heat with a time of 43.437 seconds. Her team mate Kim Boutin also cruised to the 500m quarter-finals by winning her heat with 43.634 sec- onds. Rising American star Maame Biney held off South Korea's Kim Alang to finish second in her 500m heat behind China's Fan Kexin and qualify for the quarter-finals. The Chinese women also set an Olympic record in the 3000m relay with 4:05.315. THE 28-year-old, bid- ding to match his mentor Georg Hackl's golden hat- trick in the 1990s, steered his sled with a laser-like precision as his nearest ri- vals battled for control at the tricky Olympic Sliding Centre track. Surprisingly pipped by David Gleirscher in the opening run, Loch found extra pace in his second to leapfrog the Austrian with an aggregate time of one minute 35.299 seconds. As in Sochi four years ago and Vancouver in 2010, Loch will go to bed in the gold- medal position ahead of Sunday's final runs but said he would have lit- tle trouble sleep- ing. "The last two times it was no problem," the beaming Bavarian, who holds a 0.188-second lead over Gleirscher, told reporters. "So I'm looking forward to the Olympic village to go to bed. "I would say I did eve- rything right. Sunday the weather forecast is a little bit colder than today, so safety first." Loch, who also won a re- lay gold in Sochi, had ex- pected his main threats to come from Austrian wun- derkind Wolfgang Kindl, or Russians Roman Repilov and Semen Pavlichenko. Instead it was the unher- alded Gleirscher, a 23-year- old police officer, making a big early statement before a couple of minor bumps knocked him off pace in his second run. "It was absolutely a top feeling (to lead)," the burly Austrian laughed. "The first run is great for the confidence, with such great speed. I hope I bring that back tomorrow." Repilov will return in the bronze-medal position with American surprise package Chris Mazdzer only 0.001 seconds off the podium positions. World champion Kindl was ninth after a disap- pointing night, while Pavli- chenko lies nearly a second off the pace in 17th, his medal hopes appearing all but shot. With a bone-chilling wind blowing through the venue, a raft of lugers came to grief in the session, in- cluding Ukraine's Andriy Mandziy, who finished the last of the 40 sledders af- ter flying off his sled at the track's perilous turn nine. As part of a format change, the field will be shaved down to the fastest 20 for the fourth and final run on Sunday. Charlotte Kalla of Sweden celebrates after winning Felix Loch of Germany First-placed Lim Hyo-jun of South Korea, second-placed Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands and third- placed Semen Elistratov, Olympic athlete from Russia, pose together during the victory ceremony