Surprise Gold For Crawford and Canada

Canadian Chandra Crawford surprised everyone, including herself, by winning the gold medal in the 1.1-kilometre cross-country skiing sprint at the Torino Winter Games Wednesday.

She led the race early and held it throughout over Germany’s Claudia Kuenzel and pulled away to win in a time of two minutes, 12.3 seconds.

Kuenzel edged out Russian Alena Sidko to earn the silver in 2:13.0 and Sidko won the bronze medal in a time 2:13.2

Crawford broke out with a smile a few metres before she crossed the finish line. In only in her second year on the national team, her best finish prior to the Olympics was a third-place showing on the World Cup circuit less than a week before the Games. She was 46th at the world championships last year.

Beckie Scott became Canada’s 10th athlete to finish 4th in an Olympic event in Torino.

“I wanted to be on the podium,” said Scott. “That’s what I was going for and I missed it. This has happened a few times in the past. I’ve been fourth at a world championships. It’s a hard place to be, I’ll admit it. I’ll live.”

This medal and the double Klassen-Groves in speed-skating brings the total of medals for Canada to 17, 5 Gold, 7 Silver, 5 Bronze.

Source: CBC