Ski stars under pressure, Japanese teen eyes skate gold at Sochi

Alpine ski stars Ted Ligety and Alexis Pinturault were under pressure on Friday in the Olympic super-combined as Russia struggled to come to terms with the shock retirement of figure skating icon Yevgeny Plushenko. US world champion Ligety and French young gun Pinturault finished well off the pace in the morning's downhill -- brought forward by an hour because of balmy temperatures in the mountains above Sochi. Norway's Kjetil Jansrud, fresh from a downhill bronze medal five days ago, clocked the fastest time down the Rosa Khutor course of 1min 53.24sec. Sunday's downhill champion Matthias Mayer finished third quickest and Croatian veteran Ivica Kostelic was a strong seventh but Ligety and Pinturault trailed across the line in 18th and 23rd positions on a course that gradually softened due to the warm weather. "It's not really that great when the early guys have harder snow than the later guys," Ligety, who started in 22nd place, said. "It definitely affected times, the guys who started early with faster start intervals had a little bit of an advantage." But Ligety, a four-time world champion and 2006 combined Olympic champion, is confident of making up nearly two seconds on the leader in the slalom, which starts at 3:30 pm (1130 GMT). Down in the Olympic Park on the Black Sea coast, the men's figure skating competition gold will be decided -- without Russian veteran Plushenko, who withdrew injured on Thursday before calling time on his illustrious career. Japanese star Yuzuru Hanyu put himself in pole position for gold after setting a new world record score in the men's short programme on Thursday to open up a 3.93-point lead over three-time world champion Patrick Chan of Canada. Skating to "Parisian Walkways" by Gary Moore, the 19-year-old hit a quad toeloop, triple axel and triple lutz-triple toeloop combination to score 101.45. But his breathtaking performance was overshadowed by the dramatic retirement of Plushenko, who took to the ice but injured his back in the warm-up. Russian media and officials were unanimous in expressing sympathy for the 31-year-old two-time Olympic gold medallist. But there was also more than a hint of frustration that the fragile veteran had not pulled out of the Olympics after winning gold in the team competition, which would have allowed Russia to field a replacement in the men's competition. - Career ends in 'human tragedy' - "The great career of our skater ended in a genuine human tragedy," said the Sovietsky Sport daily on its front page. It quoted a tearful Plushenko as saying: "I ask forgiveness from my fans." The withdrawal of Plushenko was highly controversial given the debate that swirled around his selection over younger rival, the Russian champion Maxim Kovtun, 18. "What was the need to do all of this, depriving not only Maxim Kovtun of his chance to perform at the Games but also the entire country of having a representative in the final?" asked the Sport Express daily. In other action on Friday a strong Chinese team headed by Li Nina could dominate the women's freestyle aerials, although defending champion Lydia Lassila of Australia will have her sights set on a second triumph. Britain's Lizzy Yarnold is the hot favourite to succeed retired compatriot Amy Williams as women's skeleton champion and there are medals up for grabs in the men's skiathlon 15km classic and the women's 15km biathlon. Germany top the medals table with seven gold, three ahead of a clutch of countries on four. Sochi Games organisers said a bobsleigh track worker injured when a sled smashed into him on Thursday is in a stable condition after an operation, emphasising that the track was not to blame. The Russian icemaker was hit by the forerunner bob which is used to clear and test the track. The accident came four years after the death of 21-year-old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a crash during a training descent at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Source: AFP