Reuters/Sochi, Russia

Lee Sang-hwa successfully defended the Olympic women’s 500 metres speed skating title in a blistering record time at the Adler Arena yesterday to give South Korea their first medal of the Sochi Games.
Lee clocked an Olympic record 74.70 seconds for her two 500 metre races in the final session to relegate Olga Fatkulina of Russia into silver medal position and disappoint the majority of the crowd.  
Margot Boer kept the strong Sochi speed skating run of the Dutch going by grabbing bronze, the Netherlands’ eighth medal in four days of competition.
Lee, the world record holder, was the overwhelming favourite heading into the Games having dominated the discipline over the current World Cup season.
She topped the time sheets by 0.15 seconds after her first run from the outside lane in the final heat to eclipse the previous mark of Fatkulina.
The Russian led after the penultimate run in the second session to bring the crowd to their feet before Lee ruined the party with a dominant skate.
Her second heat time of 37.28 seconds was also an Olympic record.  
The 24-year-old bent over and looked closed to tears as she skated down the back straight after crossing the finishing line.
China’s Hong Zhang finished fourth with Japanese disappointment on the ice continuing as Nao Kodaira could only manage fifth.  

Domracheva wins pursuit
Darya Domracheva became the first woman from Belarus to win an Olympic gold medal at a Winter Games when she powered to victory in impressive fashion in the biathlon 10km pursuit yesterday.
Domracheva, who won bronze in the individual event at the Vancouver Olympics, quickly made up a 32-second deficit at the start and never looked back, shooting an almost perfect 19 out of 20.
Norway’s Tora Berger made up for Saturday’s disappointing sprint as she took silver and Slovenian Teja Gregorin claimed bronze, giving her country its first Olympic medal in biathlon.
“It means a lot for Slovenia. It’s the first time we’ve won a medal and for such a small country it’s a lot,” she told reporters.
“They will be so proud of our first medal back there. I have put so much into it - and finally I won bronze.”
Slovak Anastasiya Kuzmina, who won the sprint, made two mistakes on the shooting range and came sixth.
Domracheva finished with a massive 37.6-second advantage over Berger and Gregorin was 42 seconds off the pace after being cheered on by the Russian crowd.
“I’m so grateful for the support I got here for this high-class race. The feeling was great, the support was cool, especially when I had enough time to dance with the flag at the finish,” Domracheva told reporters.
Berger, who arrived in Sochi looking for a grand slam of titles, was in better form that during the sprint in which she finished 10th.
She stayed in the main pack in the first part of the race, surging into podium contention only after the first standing shooting segment.
A missed target in the final shooting was not enough for Gregorin to catch up as Berger earned Norway their fourth medal of the day at the Laura Biathlon and Cross-country complex after her cross-country teammates shone in the sprint events.