February 09, 2014 (Krasnaya Polyana, Russia) – Switzerland’s Dario Cologna issued a knock-out punch on the final climb of the men’s 15kmCL+15kmFR Skiathlon for the second Olympic gold medal of his career out-muscling Sweden’s Marcus Hellner, the defending champ, who was poised for victory but settled for silver. Cologna, only recently back on the World Cup circuit following an ankle injury in Nov., was not expecting to medal so soon after his injury. He won the 15km FR at Vancouver 2010 for his first Olympic gold medal.

Taking a controversial bronze was Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) as he changed lanes just before the finish and seemed to clearly obstruct Russia’s Maxim Vylegzhanin at the line as the Russian ended up 4th. The initial protest went in favour of the Norwegian but Elena Vialbe, president of Russia’s cross-country ski federation, is apparently appealing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Meanwhile crowd favourite, Russian Alexander Legkov, had bad luck on the final climb breaking a pole and finished 11th at 27.7 seconds behind Cologna.

International regulations forbid any deviation from the optimal racing line. No. 343.9 of the International Ski Competition Rules states that: “In all competitions obstruction is not allowed. This behavior is defined as deliberately impeding, blocking (by not following best line), charging or pushing any competitor with any part of the body or ski equipment.”

Canadian hopeful Alex Harvey suffered from slow skis resulting from the choice of cold wax selection that proved to be the wrong decision as things warmed up earlier than expected. “It was game over after the second lap,” Harvey told media. “I had no grip at all and I was not really fast either. I lost 45 seconds in the classic leg pushing 100%, while the guys in front were 75 or 80%.”

He tried to regroup in the skating leg but his early efforts cost him and the pace up front by the 17 leaders was not letting up as he finished 18th with teammate Ivan Babikov in 25th and Graeme Killick 45th.

The USA suffered misfortune as well with Noah Hoffman catching some soft snow on a corner and crashed breaking a pole at an inopportune spot as there’s no coaching zone in the stadium to grab a spare pole. Hoffman was as high as 7th at 7.5km and ended up 35th followed by teammates Erik Bjornsen in 42nd, Brian Gregg in 47th and Kris Freeman in 54th.

Full report with photos and skier comments to follow.

Full results here.