Ammann wins ski jumping gold for Switzerland

WHISTLER, B.C. - Simon Ammann of Switzerland has made Winter Olympics ski jumping history.

Ammann won the individual large hill competition Saturday at Whistler Olympic Park, becoming the first man to win four career ski jumping gold medals in individual events. He has won the large and normal hill titles in 2002 and 2010. He finished out of the medals four years ago.

The 28-year-old Ammann had 283.6 points after Saturday's two jumps, which covered 144 and 138 metres.

Adam Malysz of Poland (269.4 points) won the silver medal and Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria (262.2) claimed bronze. The top three finishers were the same on the normal hill one week earlier.

Ammann joined Matti Nykanen of Finland as the only Olympic ski jumper with four gold medals. Nykanen twice reached the podium in 1984 and 1988, but one of his gold medals was earned when Finland won the team event in 1988 in Calgary.

Ammann can win an unprecedented fifth ski jumping gold medal Monday in the large hill team event, but the deep Austrian team is favoured to win that championship.

Stefan Read of Canada was 46th in Saturday's first round, from which the top 30 jumpers advanced to the final round. Read, who was born in Edmonton, lives in Calgary.

Comments

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...

ONE NEWS

Search This Blog