Witty, who has been battling against the debilitating viral disease mononucleosis, wept openly after clocking one minute 13.83 seconds to set the fourth world record in six races at the Utah Olympic Oval.
“I saw 1:13 and that completely shocked me,” Witty said. “Even if I was healthy my time would have been a surprise.”
At the Salt Lake Ice Center, Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were awarded the pairs gold medal granted after the decision of the International Skating Union to suspend a French judge for misconduct following last Monday’s final.
Russian pair Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, the original champions, were also present at the ceremony at which both national anthems were played.
Italian outsider Daniela Ceccarelli deprived Janica Kostelic of a second Olympic title by five-hundredths of a second in the second major upset of the women’s Alpine skiing programme.
Ceccarelli’s surprise super-G victory over the 20-year-old Croatian was an even bigger shock than Frenchwoman Carole Montillet’s victory in the downhill last Tuesday.
In two previous world championships, the Italian had not finished in the top 10 and managed only 20th in the downhill at Snowbasin.
“I just let the skis go,” she said in disbelief. “I didn’t think it would be enough. I knew I had skied well but I didn’t think it would be enough for a medal.”
Norway held off Italy by three-tenths of a second in the men’s 4x10 km cross-country relay in a race that yet again came down to the same two nations.
In the past two Winter Games, one of the pair has taken gold in the relay with a victory margin of less than half a second each time.
The second title of the day decided at Soldier Hollow went to Finland after the Nordic combined 4x5 km cross-country relay.
Samppa Lajunen, who won the Olympic individual title a week ago, anchored the Finns to first place after the two biggest leaps in the previous day’s ski jumping half of the event.
On the middle weekend of the 17-day Games, Norway topped the medals table with eight golds while the backlash had already begun for the less successful athletes.
The Russian 4x5 km combined team, due to start ninth on Sunday after a poor performance in the ski jumping competition, did not start the event as officials decided to send them home.
A Russian Olympic Committee spokesman said a charter plane was scheduled to leave Salt Lake City Sunday with some empty seats which would now be filled by the unsuccessful relay team.
“We decided why waste time and money on some athletes who can’t compete with the elite,” he said.
Canada reacted to indifferent results in the men’s Super-G and downhill by firing five coaches.
“We will make a fresh, new start. All of the five coaches’ contracts will not be renewed,” said Alpine Ski Canada vice-president Nick Wilson
Medals table at the end of the tenth day of competition at the Winter Olympics Monday:
G S B T
Norway 8 5 0 13
Germany 6 10 6 22
US 4 7 7 18
Russia 4 4 2 10
Italy 3 2 2 7
Switzerland 3 1 2 6
Finland 3 1 1 5
France 2 3 1 6
Netherlands 2 2 0 4
Canada 2 0 3 5
Spain 2 0 0 2
Austria 1 3 9 13
Croatia 1 1 0 2
South Korea 1 1 0 2
China 1 0 2 3
Estonia 1 0 1 2
Australia 1 0 0 1
Bulgaria 0 1 2 3
Sweden 0 1 2 3
Japan 0 1 1 2
Poland 0 1 1 2
Czech Republic 0 0 1 1
Note: Two golds, no silver awarded in the figure skating pairs programme. Two silvers, no bronze awarded in men’s cross-country combined pursuit.—Reuters