(L-R) United States Andrew Weibrecht (silver), Norway's Kjetil Jansrud (gold), Canada's Jan Hudec (bronze) and United States' Bode Miller (bronze) pose for photos during the flower ceremony for the men's Super G at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Sunday. — UPI SOCHI — Norway's Kjetil Jansrud sped to Olympic gold in the men's super-G alpine skiing Sunday and Czech Eva Samkova won the women's snowboarding cross after yet more tumbles on the testing course where a Russian skier broke her back a day earlier. Skicross racer Maria Komissarova, 23, was in a serious but stable condition after an operation lasting more than six hours on Saturday to insert a metal implant in her back. Doctors said it would take three or four days to know how successful the surgery had been. On the ninth day of medal competition, Sweden won its second cross-country relay gold when it prevailed in the men's 4x10km event, ahead of Russia and France. On the Rosa Khutor piste in the Caucasus mountains, Jansrud secured Norway's fourth successive Olympic men's super-G win, while 36-year-old American Bode Miller tied for bronze with Canada's Jan Hudec, to become the oldest ever Alpine skiing medalist. Miller's teammate Andrew Weibrecht captured a surprise silver medal after starting 29th, with all the favorites gone. Miller, who now has six Olympic medals, was overcome with emotion as he remembered his younger brother Chelone, a promising snowboarder who might have been at the Games but died of an apparent seizure last year. “Losing my brother this last year was really hard for myself, my family, our whole community,” he said. “To have things go well today, as well as they did ... everything felt pretty raw and pretty connected. It was a lot for me.” Czech athlete Samkova, sporting a fake moustache drawn on her top lip for good luck, avoided the rough and tumble of the pack in the thrilling snowboarding cross event where racers go head to head down a twisty course full of bumps and jumps, jostling with their rivals to find the best line. “It's a lucky moustache. Today it's in national colours,” she said of her facial adornment in red, white and blue. Defending champion Maelle Ricker of Canada and 2006 silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis of the United States were eliminated in the heats after taking tumbles on the Extreme Park course. Dominique Maltais of Canada took silver to add to the bronze she won in Turin eight years ago, while French teenager Chloe Trespeuch was third. Poland's Kamil Stoch won his second ski jumping gold of the Olympics when he triumphed on the large hill to deny Japan's Noriaki Kasai the chance to become the oldest ever Winter Games champion. Slovenia's Peter Prevc took bronze. Poland's Zbigniew Brodka won a dramatic 1,500m speed skating race by just three-thousandths of a second from devastated Dutchman Koen Verweij. — Agencies
