IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Korean cheer surprise speedskating golds

SEOUL: South Korea Wednesday cheered its latest sporting heroes as Lee Sang-Hwa won gold in the women's 500 metres speedskating - the country's second victory in two days in the Winter Olympics event.

Viewers at home and fans watching large screens in the streets exploded with joy as the 20-year-old stunned hot favourite Jenny Wolf of Germany.

She clocked a combined time of 76.09sec for her two races (38.24 and 37.85), just 0.05sec ahead of Wolf. China's Wang Beixing took the bronze in 76.63sec.

Violent 'ringleader' arrested by police

VANCOUVER: Vancouver police have arrested the alleged ringleader of the violent anti-Olympic protests which erupted at the weekend and which also saw the Games torch relay blocked.

Eleven people in total have now been arrested in connection with the incidents with charges including disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer.

"On Friday February 12, police watched a person who is well known to them lead a group of criminals all dressed in black set up a barbed wire barricade. The barricade caused the torch relay to be diverted," said a police statement.

"The same person was seen on Saturday dressed in black pulling a cloth over his mouth and nose and a hood over his head. Using an air horn, the leader of the group, who has described himself publicly as an anarchist, told the others to feel free to vandalize."

Huefner reinforces German domination

WHISTLER, Canada: Tatjana Huefner reinforced Germany's domination of the luge on Tuesday by winning the women's singles gold as they threaten a clean sweep of all three Olympic titles.

Huefner posted the fastest time of 2mins 46.524sec over the four runs while Austria's Nina Reithmayer claimed second at 0.490sec behind with Germany's Natalie Geisenberger third, 0.577sec off the pace.

"I am delighted that it worked so well, I am overjoyed to be the Olympic gold medalist - it's mad," said Huefner, who won bronze four years ago in Turin.

"This is exactly what I have worked for over many years.

"I was nervous before all four runs, but this victory is what I have dreamed about."

Gold for anti-doping hardliner Ferry

WHISTLER, Canada: Bjorn Ferry is a real hot shot with the biathlon rifle, as well a mean skier - two reasons why he won the pursuit title on Tuesday at Whistler.

Any apologists for dopers hopefully gave the event a wide berth.

Had they or any 'pharma-athletes' shown their faces they would have risked seeing the outspoken Swede turn his sights on them.

Before his race, Ferry underlined his contempt for anyone taking a soft line on drug cheats and said dopers deserved the stiffest punishment.

And not just the usual slap on the wrist of a ban.

"If it were up to me I would dish out the death penalty in doping cases," he said.

(China Daily 02/18/2010 page12)