CurlingPyeongChang 2018
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The summary of the other races of the penultimate day of the PyeongChang Games.
Saturday 24 February 2018 7 minutes reading time
The day opened with the snowboard men's big air finals, one of the new specialties of these Games. The Canadian Sebastien Toutant wins the gold, whose score of his two best jumps out of three is 174.25. Silver for the American Kyle Mack (168.75), bronze for the British Billy Morgan (268.00), down from the podium, fourth and fifth, the two Americans Chris Corning, leader of the World Cup of specialties, and Redmond Gerard, gold in the slopestyle. Twenty-fourth the only blue, Alberto Maffei, eliminated in qualifying.
The men's tournament ends in the most unprecedented way: the gold final wins the United States by John Shuster, 10-7 for Sweden's Niklas Edin super-feat that once again misses the only trophy he misses . Shuster had been bronze in Turin 2006, the only stars and stripes medal in this event before today, but then he finished last in Vancouver 2010 and penultimate in Sochi 2014 and was marginalized by the federation together with one of his companions, John Landsteiner, the two join two other discards, Matt Hamilton and Tyler George, and start winning tournament tournaments, including the Trials, which qualify for the Games.
But that's not all: in the round robin at a certain point they are two wins and four defeats like Italy, from which among other things they were beaten, but while the Azzurri only win one game and they lose two and they are eliminated they no longer lose. They beat Canada, Switzerland and Great Britain in order, and qualify for the semi-finals where they find the bitter Canadian rivals again and beat them for the second time. Finally in the final, after seven end closed on 5-5 an already in itself struggling point to point with Sweden, in the eighth they are overcome with a series of incredible games, especially the last one, which gives them 5 points. The game is virtually closed, the Swedes make two points in the ninth end but in the tenth, when there is little lack of mathematical certainty of the defeat, make a shot back to the track and goes to shake hands with opponents.
The mass start of speed skating on the long track does not give Italy medals, especially in the women's, with Francesca Lollobrigida who was one of the favorites and passes easily from the semi-finals to the final but inexplicably the blue, who was already sure to qualify (he was in the lead with 8 points after the three flying goals that give 5, 3 and 1 point to the first three and even if he had not been among the first three at the finish line, where 60, 40 and 20 points are awarded, he would have qualified the same because they pass the first eight of each semifinal), inexplicably goes to sprint to conquer the first place even at the finish, thus wasting energies that would have been precious for the final, which in this case is held on the same day of the semifinals and not the day after.
What's more: there is almost as far as the beginning of the final escape, the Estonian Saskia Alusalu, who takes the first three flying goals into the lead and no one moves to go back to her, Francesca is moving and this other imprudence will make her find unprepared when it will start on the last lap, once the Estonian resumes, the offensive of the Japanese Nana Takagi, the South Korean Kim Bo-reum and the Dutch Irene Schouten, who will win in the gold, silver and bronze, and for the Nippon, which had never won in previous editions, is the third gold in these games in speed skating.
Lollobrigida crosses the finish line in the fourth position but the brawny regulation foresees the points classification and thus makes her retreat in seventh, thus saving her the wooden medal. Sixteenth and last in the final the other blue Francesca Bettrone. It does not go better in the men's race where Andrea Giovannini closes twelfth, the gold goes to South Korean Lee Saung-hoon, the 2010 Olympic champion in the 10,000, the silver goes to Bart Swings who brings to Belgium the sixth medal ever at the Games in 20 years distance from the penultimate of Bart Veldkamp, ​​bronze on 5000 in Nagano. The bronze is from the Dutch Koen Verweij, silver in the 1500s in Sochi.
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