The winter Olympics in Beijing are starting very well, just as the summer ones ended for the blue colors.
Two medals obtained on the first day of competitions. The first is by Francesca Lollobrigida , silver in the 3 thousand meters of speed skating. The second always comes from ice, also silver.
The blue short track relay won it. The quartet made up of Arianna Fontana, Martina Valcepina, Pietro Sighel and Andrea Cassinelli finished just behind China in the final held at the Capital Indoor Stadium.
The fall of the competitors of the other two teams, Canada and Hungary, made the final a challenge between the Azzurri and China, with Pietro Sighel coming close to a sensational comeback on his Chinese rival in the last meters. The bronze went to Canada.
For Arianna Fontana it is the ninth Olympic medal which makes her the most successful athlete in short track and the second ever in Italy after Stefania Belmondo, who has ten Olympic medals on the bulletin board.
Good news also from the women's short track, where the three Italians Arianna Fontana, Martina and Arianna Valcepina qualified for the quarter-finals.
In curling, on the other hand, the races of which started a couple of days before the opening ceremony, the unstoppable march of the Italian mixed couple formed by Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner continues: six wins out of as many games.
At the top of the medal table at the end of the first day of competition is Norway with two golds, followed by Slovenia with one gold and one bronze, then China, the Netherlands and Sweden with one gold each and Italy with two silvers.
(Unioneonline / L)