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Starting strong Italy's Belmondo brings home first gold of GamesPosted: Saturday February 09, 2002 11:50 AMUpdated: Saturday February 09, 2002 9:30 PM
MIDWAY, Utah (AP) -- Stefania Belmondo of Italy captured the first gold medal of the XIX Winter Olympics, winning the women's 15-kilometer mass-start freestyle cross-country race in a thrilling finish Saturday. Belmondo clocked 39 minutes, 54.4 seconds over the tough, sun-drenched Soldier Hollow course, edging 36-year-old Russian veteran Larissa Lazutina by 1.8 seconds. Katerina Neumannova of the Czech Republic came home third, 6.9 seconds behind. Julija Tchepalova of Russia finished fourth in 40:02.7, while Finland's Vaisa Karis placed fifth in 40:04.1. Americans Nina Kemppel, Barbara Jones and Kristina Joder were 30th, 44th and 54th, respectively. Kemppel finished nearly three minutes behind the leader. It was a perfect start to Belmondo's fifth and final Olympics. The 33-year-old from Demonte said the Salt Lake games will be her last. As she crossed the finish line, Belmondo screamed loudly, kissed her right hand twice and pointed to the sky. "I'm very happy today. It's such a wonderful feeling," she said. Her first Olympic triumph came 10 years ago in Albertville, France, where she won the 30K freestyle race. "In Albertville, I was 23. Now I'm 33 and I can tell you, the 10 years in between feel like a hell of a lot of time," she said. Lazutina, who won five medals four years ago in Nagano, Japan, led the pack from the stadium, with Belmondo, Tchepalova and Neumannova close behind.
Driven ahead by boisterous crowds along the track, a group of some 15 skiers that included all the favorites pulled away at the 3-kilometer mark and stayed neck-and-neck until the end of the first 7.5-kilometer loop. Belmondo broke a pole at the 10.5-kilometer mark and pushed with only one pole for several hundred meters, until her serviceman gave her a new one. "At that point, I though the race was over," Belmondo said. "I cried, I screamed like never before." But the Italian soon managed to pull back and at the 12-kilometer mark, she again set the pace. Two kilometers before the final stretch, the racers seemingly slowed down and started to maneuver for positions in the finish. The decisive breakaway came in a steep climb 1.5 kilometers before the stadium. The Russian charged ahead, closely followed by Belmondo. Lazutina entered the home stretch in first place, but Belmondo accelerated and surged ahead to beat her in the final 100 meters. "The final break was clearly the most important moment of the race," Lazutina said. "When I first realized I'd lost, I was sad, but now I'm happy. I know I did all I could." Lazutina and Belmondo both now have eight Olympic medals, two short of the Winter Olympics women's record held by Raisa Smetanina. Security was tight at the venue, with armed guards equipped with bomb-detecting devices searching buses on the access road to Soldier Hollow and spectators enduring long waits at checkpoints before the stadium. Lazutina bitterly complained about the security procedures at the venues. "I'm at my fourth Olympics, but nobody has ever searched my personal belongings this way. It's beyond my comprehension. They even sniffed my water," she said. "We've come here to compete and there's nothing else on our minds," she said.
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