Russia wins bronze in biathlon relay

WHISTLER, February 27 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian won bronze on Friday in
men's biathlon relay while Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen brought gold to
his team in the final leg.
Austria's Christoph Sumann edged Russia's Evgeny Ustyugov, giving
Austria the silver and Russia the bronze.

.Biathlete Shipulin says nearly fainted in relay.

WHISTLER, February 27 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's biathlete Anton Shipulin
said he nearly fainted while running in the second heat of men's relay on
Friday.
Shipulin was the first to start the second heat due to the effort of
Ivan Cherezov, but was 30 seconds behind the leader at the finish although
he did not miss at the shootings. Russia won bronze in the relay.
"One and a half kilometers before the finish I had a feeling that
someone has struck me with a hammer on my head. I don't know what
happened, but I began to faint. I feared I may not ski to the finish. My
legs were like stones, I lost my breath and was losing eyesight. At the
finish one eye could see practically nothing," Shipulin told reporters
after the relay.
"It happened for the first time in my life. In the morning I felt
pretty well and slept well. I cannot explain why it happened," he said.
After the finish doctors rendered first aid to Shipulin and he
recovered.

.Russia's Ilyukhina wins silver in parallel giant slalom.

WHISTLER, February 27 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Ekaterina Ilyukhina won
snowboarding silver in parallel giant slalom on Friday ceding the gold
medal to Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands.
Sauerbreij won by .23 seconds in the final heat at Cypress Mountain.
Austria's Marion Kreiner won the bronze.
23-year old Ilyukhina from the city of Novosibirsk is European
Cup-2007 winner and also won the bronze at the 2007 World Cup among
juniors.

.Sochi-2014 organizer unaware of Medvedev's visit to Vancouver.

VANCOUVER, February 27 (Itar-Tass) -- The president of the Olympic
Sochi-2014 organizing committee made it clear on Friday Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev will hardly arrive in Vancouver to take over the Winter
Olympic relay from Canada.
"There are deputy prime ministers Dmitry Kozak and Alexander Zhukov
here. It is a very high level of representation. I am unaware of the plans
of other state officials," Dmitry Chernyshenko told reporters in answer to
the question whether Medvedev would attend the closing ceremony.
According to Olympic traditions the Olympic flag is handed over at the
closing ceremony to the mayor of the next Olympic venue. "That is to the
mayor of Sochi," Chernyshenko said.

.Aide makes clear Kremlin dissatisfied with Russian Olympic
performance.

MOSCOW, February 27 (Itar-Tass) -- Presidential foreign policy aide
Sergei Prikhodko made it clear on Friday the Kremlin is dissatisifed with
poor Russian Olympic performance in Vancouver.
Prikhodko told reporters on Friday the general performance of the
Russian team "was below any criticism." "I could not even watch any event
to the end," he said.
He even said he predicted the Russian national ice hockey team would
not qualify for the Olympic finals in Vancouver and bet on Canada's
victory against Russia in quarterfinals.
He said he predicted from the very beginning the Russian ice hockey
team would hardly win a medal in Vancouver. "I even bet and won," he said.
Russia lost to Canada 3:7 in quarterfinals.

.Russia to audit Olympic team costs.

MOSCOW, February 27 (Itar-Tass) -- Following unprecedented poor
performance of the national Olympic team in Vancouver, which caused a
domestic storm of criticism against sport officials, the Audit Chamber
said it would check how the money for Olympic preparations was spent.
Auditor Sergei Movchan told a press conference on Friday the Audit
Chamber will check in April - September the sport ministry and the
national Olympic committee, as well as the Center for preparations of
Russian teams, the Sochi-2014 organizing committee, and various sport
federations.
Although Movchan said "there is no task to determine whether our team
has won enough medals," he added "we would check whether the money was
spent reasonably and whether there were embezzlements".
The auditor again stressed it would be an ordinary check that is
usually carried out after all Olympic Games, even those successful.
"There will be no sensations. It is an ordinary control event. So far
no facts of improper use of the money during the Olympic Games were
exposed," he said.
However he said the report of the Audit Chamber will help learn a
lesson and prevent mistakes in preparations for Sochi-2014 Winter Olympic
Games.
Russian Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov also said it is
necessary to clarify why so many sport officials went to Vancouver, by
warned against a witch-hunt.
"We have to look where the money went and whether we shall send so
many officials and accompanying people who only dance in the Russian House
(in Vancouver)," he told Tass on Friday.
"It is clear for me that blamestorming is inevitable," he said adding
sport officials should be disciplined. However, "that should be done
quietly, without a witch-hunt," Mironov said.
-0-nec