McGarry disqualified in slalom

WINTER OLYMPICS:KIRSTEN McGARRY'S Winter Olympics ended on a sour note last night when she was disqualified from the slalom after one of her skis was adjudged to be one millimetre too thick.

The Dubliner completed her first run in foggy conditions in a time of 59.28 seconds at Whistler Creekside but ran foul of the judges afterwards and was not allowed to compete in the second run later in the evening. McGarry finished 50th in the giant slalom on Thursday.

“It was one millimetre over the requirement, it’s a technical thing relating to the bindings,” said an OCI spokesman last night. “I understand it could make the skis fractionally too high which could give a competitive advantage.

“It happens regularly but she’s disappointed, she did quite well on the first run.”

Malahide’s Shane O’Connor will be making sure his skis are up to scratch ahead of today’s men’s slalom. O’Connor has also been chosen as the flag bearer for the closing ceremony tomorrow.

“This is a great honour for me”, he said yesterday. “Ireland has been one of the most popular nations competing in Vancouver, due to the close links between Canada and Ireland.

“They love the Irish here and want us to become a bigger winter sport nation. That’s my objective as well and I hope many young Irish people will be encouraged to take up winter sports as a result of the impact of the Irish team’s participation at these amazing Games.”

The first slalom run will take place at 6pm (Irish time), with the second scheduled for 9.45pm.

Germany’s Maria Riesch won the women’s slalom to take her second Alpine skiing gold medal of the Olympics. Riesch, whose younger sister, Susanne, skied out on the second run while also hunting a medal, led after the first run and beat Austrian Marlies Schild into second place by 0.43 seconds with a total time of one minute 42.89.

Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic took the bronze medal in the final race of the women’s programme at Whistler Creekside.

Riesch also won the super combined last week.

American Lindsey Vonn, who had been chasing her third medal from five races, went out in the first run when she straddled a gate. Defending champion Anja Paerson of Sweden missed a gate in the second leg.

Meanwhile the United States delivered six first period goals to cruise into the Olympic men’s ice hockey final with a ruthless 6-1 win over Finland.

The Americans now await the winner of the other semi-final between Canada and Slovakia for a spot in tomorrow’s final where the last medals of the Vancouver Games will be decided.

There were early signs it was going to be a long day for the Finns when Miikka Kiprusoff charged out of his net to clear the puck and put it right onto the stick of Ryan Malone, who happily buried it into the open net.

Kiprusoff was never able to recover from the blunder. Zach Parise, Erik Johnson and Patrick Kane all put pucks past the wobbly netminder as the first period hit the midway mark.

After giving up four goals on seven shots, Finland coach Jukka Jalonen had seen enough and pulled Kiprusoff in favour of Niklas Backstrom.