Daehlie’s Back Where He Belongs Again

Bjorn Daehlie became the first man to win six Winter Olympic gold medals when he won the 10-kilometer classical cross-country race Wednesday.

Daehlie, who flopped to 20th in Monday’s 30-kilometer race after putting the wrong wax on his skis, got it right this time while skiing in a steady rain at the Snow Harp course. He led from the start and finished in 27 minutes, 24.5 seconds.

Markus Gandler, eight seconds slower, won the silver. Finland’s Mika Myllylae, winner of the 30-kilometer race, won the bronze in 27:40.1.

The Norwegian’s triumph goes with the three golds he won at Albertville in 1992 and the two he collected at Lillehammer in ’94.

The 97-man field included Philip Boit, the first Kenyan to compete in a Winter Games. He came in dead last, 20 minutes behind Daehlie, who was the first to congratulate the exhausted Boit at the finish line.

Daehlie was 6.3 seconds faster than the rest of the field by the first checkpoint at 1.8 kilometers, and never let that lead slip.

Gandler came up strong in the second half of the race for his best ever result in a major event.

Myllylae edged Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakhstan by five seconds.

Daehlie went into these games tied with speedskaters Eric Heiden of the United States and A. Clas Thunberg of Finland with five gold medals.

Daehlie is now tied with Lydia Skoblikova and Lyubov Egorova as the winningest Winter Games competitors. Skoblikova won her six golds for the Soviet Union at speedskating in 1960 and ‘64, and Egorova’s six for Russia came at cross-country skiing at the Albertville and Lillehammer games.

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Larissa Lazutina won her second gold medal of the Nagano Games and third overall in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle pursuit, sprinting away from her rivals at Snow Harp.

The 32-year-old Russian was chased through most of the race by Katerina Neumannova of the Czech Republic, who stayed a little over a ski length away and even took the lead with 2.6 kilometers to go.

Lazutina, who began the race with a five-second advantage after her five-kilometer win Tuesday, regained the lead almost immediately and made a decisive move a kilometer from home to win in 28 minutes 29.9 seconds. Added to her five-kilometer time, that gave her a total of 46:06.9. The pursuit results are based on total time.

The two skiers had been well clear of the rest of the field for most of the race but another Russian, Olga Danilova, edged Neumannova for the silver.

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MEDALISTS

Cross-Country Skiing

MEN’S 10K

Gold: Bjorn Daehlie, Norway

Silver: Markus Gandler, Austria

Bronze: Mika Myllylae, Finland

WOMEN’S 10K PURSUIT

Gold: Larissa Lazutina, Russia

Silver: Olga Danilova, Russia

Bronze: Katerina Neumannova, Czech Rep.