Canada claims two golds to join top three in PyeongChang Games
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E-mail Xinhua, February 21, 2018
Canada claimed two gold medals to storm to third place on the medals table at the PyeongChang Winter Games on Tuesday.
Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir pulled off a superb performance to beat a strong field for their second Olympic ice dancing title.
The victory marked the Canadian figure skaters, who won gold at Vancouver 2010, as the second pair to win two Olympic golds in this event, after Russians Pasha Grishuk and Evgeniy Platov's achievement in 1994 and 1998.
After winning the gold in the team event, Virtue and Moir continued their strong run in original dance, setting personal best records of 122.40 points in free dance and 206.07 overall to stand on the top of the podium.
"I am thrilled with this competition. That performance was really special and truly memorable. The gold medal is the cherry on the cake," said an excited Virtue.
Commenting on the difference between the two victories in Vancouver and PyeongChang, Moir said. "Extremely different this time. Obviously, 2010 we were in our own country. Those are moments we will never forget. But eight years later we're completely different people, we're completely different athletes."
"We still love what we do. It's personal this time. It was for each other, we skated with each other in mind the whole way and we skated with our hearts. It's extremely fulfilling," said the 30-year-old Moir.
France's Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, making their debut at the Winter Olympic Games, scored 123.35 points for a total of 205.28 to pocket the silver medal. American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani settled for the bronze.
Skier Cassie Sharpe then won the freestyle skiing women's halfpipe gold.
Sharpe earned her best score of 95.80 points in the second run of three to take the gold, while France's Marie Martinod, who took silver four years ago at the Sochi Games, again finished second with 92.60.
"I've been training so hard to get that run consistent and I just wanted to come out here strong with that first run. Just putting all my hard work into this, it's just everything wrapped up into one," said Sharpe.
Elsewhere, Germany continued its pressure on medals table leader Norway with Johannes Rydzek winning Nordic combined men's 10km.
Host South Korea reaped its fourth gold by defending its title of short track speed skating women's 3,000m relay.
The South Korean team surpassed China in the final sprint before claiming the gold in four minutes and 7.361 seconds.
China was subsequently disqualified for obstruction. Both in 2006 and 2014, China failed to win an Olympic medal in this event as its athletes were disqualified in the final.
In biathlon, France claimed the gold medal of 2x6km women+ 2x7.5km men mixed relay.
Norway now leads medals table on 11 gold, 10 and 8 bronze medals while Germany is second on 11-7-5. Canada is third with 8 golds. China is 19th with 5 silver and 2 bronze medals.
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