Winter Olympics: Sure-footed Arakawa Claims Golden Reward

Japan's Shizuka Arakawa stayed on her feet to win the women's figure skating gold medal while the favorites Sasha Cohen and Irina Slutskaya fell at the Palavela rink to ruin their chances.

Arakawa produced a flawless free program to climb from third to first on a night her chief rivals let nerves get the better of them. The American Cohen, leader after the short program, fell twice and the 2002 silver medalist Slutskaya also took a costly tumble which prevented the 27-year-old from completing a golden sweep of the figure skating medals for Russia as well as becoming her country's first ever Olympic women's champion. Slutskaya had been the sentimental favorite after a heart condition had threatened her career.

Arakawa, 24, was faultless. Trailing Cohen by a point after the short program, the Japanese skater scored a personal-best 125.32 points with her free routine, a sparkling display set to Puccini's Turandot. She landed five triples, three in combination, and her gliding lean-back move was particularly brilliant. Her total of 191.34 put her 7.98 points clear of her more illustrious rivals and earned the Japanese their first medal of these Games.

Meanwhile Walter Mayer, the coach at the centre of a doping controversy, was under surveillance for nearly a month before Italian police raided the house he was sharing with members of Austria's Olympic biathlon and cross-country teams, it has emerged.