The 10th day of the Olympics in Vancouver was the most successful for the Russian team, adding 3 medals - one gold, one silver, and one bronze - to the country's store and soaring Russia from the 12th to the 7th position in the overall medal standings.
Russia also enjoyed success in men's ice hockey, defeating Czechs in the third and final Group B game. The U.S. men's hockey team beat Ñanada in the final Group A match.
The U.S., Switzerland and the Netherlands grabbed gold medals in men's Alpine Skiing, men's Ski Cross and ladies' 1,500m speed skating, respectively.
Russia stars in biathlon, bobsleigh in Vancouver
Russia's Evgeny Ustyugov brought his country its second Vancouver gold, winning the men's biathlon 15 km mass start at the Olympics. He shot clean and finished with 35:35.7.
France's Martin Fourcade took the silver, finishing 10.5 seconds behind the Russian. Slovakia's Pavol Hurajt grabbed the bronze.
Norway's five-time Olympic Champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen finished 27th.
Russia's Olga Zaitzeva won silver in biathlon women's 12.5 km mass start, finishing the distance at the Whistler Olympic Park 5.5 seconds behind the winner, Magdalena Neuner of Germany, whore result was 35 minutes 19.6 seconds.
Another German biathlete Simone Hauswald packed bronze, finishing less than 2 seconds behind Zaitzeva.
Russia also enjoyed success in the bobsleigh two-man event on the 10th day of the Games. Alexander Zubkov and Alexei Voevoda won bronze medals in the competition, finishing Heat 4 at the Whistler Sliding Center with an overall time of 3 minutes 27.51 seconds.
Germany's couple of Andre Lange and Kevin Kuske brought their country its sixth Vancouver gold with a total result of 3 minutes 26.65 seconds.
Their fellow countrymen Thomas Florschuetz and Richard Adjei brought Germany the silver (3 minutes 26.87 seconds).
U.S. enjoys gold in men's Alpine Skiing
U.S. skier Bode Miller won gold in Alpine Skiing men's Super Combined Slalom at the Vancouver Winter Games, showing the best time of 2 minutes 44.92 seconds.
Croatia's Ivica Kostelic won the silver (2 minutes 45.25 seconds) and Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland took the bronze (2 minutes 45.32 seconds).
Switzerland grabs fifth Vancouver gold in men's Ski Cross
Swiss freestyler Michael Schmid brought his country its fifth Vancouver gold after winning in men's Ski Cross on the 10th day of the Games.
Schmid along with Andreas Matt of Austria, Audun Groenvold of Norway and Canada's Christopher Delbosco were the four best freestylers to qualify for the Big Final on the Cypress Mountain.
As Schmid was the fastest on the track, Matt was second to finish and win the silver, while Groenvold packed the bronze for Norway.
Netherlands wins in ladies' 1,500m speed skating
Dutch speed skater Ireen Wust won gold medal in ladies' 1,500 m at the Vancouver Olympics.
The 23-year-old skater was the fastest on the track at the Richmond Olympic Oval to win the gold with a total time of 1 minute 56.89 seconds.
Canada's Kristina Groves finished 0.25 seconds behind Wust to win the silver, while Martina Sablikova brought the bronze for the Czech Republic with the result of 1 minute 57.96 seconds.
Russia beats Czechs, U.S. wins over Canada in men's ice hockey
Russian ice hockey players defeated the Czech team 4-2 in the third and final game of the group stage at the Olympic Games in Vancouver.
NHL Pittsburg Penguins Yevgeny Malkin opened the score for the two-time world champions in the middle of the first period, but his goal was answered by Czech Tomas Plekanes with less than a minute of the period's time remaining.
The second period of the match in Canada Hockey Place saw only one goal, which was scored by Russia's Viktor Kozlov.
Shortly after the opening of the third period Yevgeny Malkin scored his second goal in the match after one-on-one attack with Czech goalie Tomas Vokoun.
The Czechs, however, did not relax and Milan Michalek scored another goal for his team on the 15th minutes of the period, but hopes for the victory were tarnished by Russia's Pavel Datsyuk, who scored an empty netter with 13 seconds of game time left.
After all games in Group B have been played, the Russians finished the preliminaries in the lead with 7 points and are followed by the Czechs with 6 points. Teams from Slovakia and Latvia finished in the third (5 points) and the fourth (0 points) places respectively.
The United States defeated 5-3 the hosts of the Games in the final Group A match.
U.S. Brian Rafalski scored the first goal only 41 seconds in the opening period. Canada's Eric Staal drew the score on the ninth minute, but less than 20 seconds later Rafalski was quick enough to score another goal to secure the U.S. advantage of 2-1 after the first period.
The teams scored each a goal in the second period beginning with Dany Heatley, who drew the score to 2-2, and then Chris Drury netted another for his team to leave the Americans in the lead 3-2 after the second period.
The United States greatly disappointed the Canadian fans after Jamie Langenbrunner increased the U.S. lead in the score to 4-2 in the middle of the third period, but hopes returned as Canada's Sidney Crosby netted the puck in the American goal with some three minutes of match time remaining.
However, Ryan Kesler scored an empty-netter 45 seconds before the final buzzer leaving the final score at 5-2 and putting his team in first place of its Group A with a total of 9 points.
After all games played in Group A, Canada is in the second place with 5 points while Switzerland and Norway are in the third and fourth places with three and one points respectively.
Russia's figure skating pair 3rd after Original Dance
Russia's ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin finished in the third place after the original dance at the Olympics.
The Russians, who were in the lead after the compulsory dance with 43.76 points, danced to "Aboriginal Dance" to earn 62.84 points and an overall of 106.60.
Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir executed a brilliant performance to "Spanish Flamenco" with the judges giving them the highest score of 68.41, which added to their 42.74 after the compulsory dance, to put them in the lead with an overall of 111.15 points.
Meryl Davis and Charlie White from the United States are now in the second place with 108.55 points (41.47 for the compulsory dance and 67.08 for the original dance).
Team medal count at 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics
Country Gold Silver Bronze Overall
1. U.S. 7 7 10 (24)
2. Germany 6 7 5 (18)
3. Norway 5 3 4 (12)
4. Canada 4 4 1 (9)
5. South Korea 4 4 1 (9)
6. Austria 2 3 3 (8)
7. Russia 2 3 3 (8)
MOSCOW, February 22 (RIA Novosti)
