SALT LAKE CITY, Feb 13: Carole Montillet won the Olympic women’s downhill title for France and her late team mate Regine Cavagnoud in an emotionally charged run down the Wildflower piste on Tuesday.

“I skied with my heart,” said Montillet. “I’m thinking about her a lot. I think she must be very proud of me from where she is.”

Cavagnoud, the super-G world champion, died in a training crash in Austria last October.

Five gold medals were decided on the fourth day of competition in the 17-day Winter Games.

Casey FitzRandolph became the sixth American to win the men’s 500 metres speedskating title after his friend and training partner Jeremy Wotherspoon crashed in Monday’s first race.

Estonia won their first two Winter Olympic medals when Andrus Veerpalu took the men’s 15 km classical cross-country ski race ahead of compatriot Jaak Mae in third place.

Norway’s Bente Skari denied the Russians a podium sweep by winning the women’s 10 km classical race and four times Olympian Janne Lahtela of Finland struck gold at last by thwarting the young Americans in the men’s freestyle skiing moguls.

Figure skating’s ruling body (ISU) announced an inquiry in to judging at the Winter Games after Russian pair Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were awarded the pairs title ahead of Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier on Monday evening.

On a brighter note, Montillet’s astonishing run proved the highlight of the day.

The women’s downhill had been postponed from Monday because of high winds and delayed again for two hours on Tuesday, finally getting underway when Slovenian Spela Bracun shoved out of the starting gate.

Montillet, 28, who had won only once in a decade on the World Cup circuit, started 11th and hurtled down the piste in one minute 39.65 seconds. She then had to wait anxiously as rival after rival failed to match her mark.

Italy’s Isolde Kostner finished second, less than a half-second behind with Austrian favourite Renate Goetschl third. Former world champion Picabo Street, the home crowd favourite, finished 16th in her Olympic farewell.

“This is great for all the girls after all they’ve been through, especially for Carole who was magnificent,” said French ski team director Gerard Rougier.

FitzRandolph won the equivalent of the downhill on ice for the United States’ first 500 title since Eric Heiden won all five speedskating gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

FitzRandolph, who at the age of 5 had been inspired by Heiden’s performance to the extent that he gave up ice hockey for speedskating, said his victory had been affected by Wotherspoon’s absence.

At Soldier Hollow, Veerpalu raced to victory in 37:07.4 in the 15 km classical cross-country after leading from the halfway stage.

Skari, a classical specialist trailed Russian Olga Danilova by more than 10 1/2 seconds with 1.3 kms of the women’s 10 km remaining before turning on the power to win in 28:05.6, 2.5 seconds ahead of her rival.

Crowds at Deer Valley for the freestyle ski moguls saw Lahtela go one better than his silver medal in 1998 as he produced two quadruple jumps and the fastest time of the final to defeat American teenager Travis Mayer.

The day ended as it had begun with figure skating in the spotlight.

Veterans Elvis Stojko and Todd Eldredge waved goodbye to their gold medal hopes by finishing seventh and ninth respectively in the men’s short programme while Russia’s gold medal favourite Yevgeny Plushenko crashed on the front end of his sequence and ended the day in fourth place.