Marit Bjoergen lived up to her billing as the hot favorite by winning the womens 15-kilometer skiathlon at Sochi on Saturday, giving the Norwegian cross-country skier her fourth career Olympic gold medal. Cheap Jerseys Review . Bjoergen pulled away from Swedens Charlotte Kalla on the final straight to win in 38 minutes, 33.6 seconds and defend her title from the 2010 Vancouver Games. Kalla was 1.8 seconds back. Heidi Weng of Norway took bronze. Bjoergen was the most successful athlete of the Vancouver Games with three gold medals, a silver and a bronze and showed right away she has the ability to match that feat in Sochi. With a group of five skiers staying together until the last kilometer, Kalla tried to pull away in the final tough uphill section and decide the race before the final sprint. Only Bjoergen was able to match her pace going up the hill, and the Norwegian then went in front as they entered the stadium. Kalla had no answer for the strong finish by Bjoergen, who had time to turn her head and then raise her arm in celebration as she crossed the line. The skiathlon event starts with 7.5 kilometers of classical-style skiing before switching to freestyle, making it a tough test of the athletes all-round abilities. Kalla won the 10K freestyle event in Vancouver four years ago and showed she has vastly improved her classical style skiing since then. She has never finished on the podium in a skiathlon on the World Cup circuit and celebrated as if she had won on Saturday, raising her arms to celebrate as she crossed the line behind Bjoergen and then jumping up and down holding her skis in the air. She prevented a Norwegian sweep of the medals, with Therese Johaug finishing fourth. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen of Finland was fifth. Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland, a three-time overall World Cup winner who has been struggling with a foot injury, was with the leading group of seven skiers at the halfway mark but slipped and fell just as she was about to enter her station for the ski change and lost several seconds. She exited the ski change 7.4 seconds behind Kalla, and never came any closer during the freestyle. Entering the last lap, she was nearly 19 seconds behind and she finished sixth, 58.1 seconds back. The next womens event is the individual freestyle sprint on Tuesday, when Bjoergen is again among the favorites. The mens 30K skiathlon is Sunday. Cheap Jersey Website . According the CSNBayArea.com, the 31-year-old suffered an ACL injury in his right knee on Friday when he collided with Anaheims Emerson Etem during a pre-season game. Cheap Jerseys For Sale . - In about six minutes, the Memphis Grizzlies had allowed their 23-point lead to be cut to seven. https://www.cheapjerseysreview.com/ . The 49ers announced the deal Tuesday. San Francisco selected Lloyd in the fourth round of the 2003 draft.SOCHI - What she remembers most is what it felt like to stand on the blue-line, proudly watch the Canadian flag rise for the first time and hear OCanada belted out passionately amongst a sea of Americans. "Just that feeling of complete satisfaction," said Jayna Hefford. "Feeling like everything we went through paid off." It was 2002 in Salt Lake City and the first of three consecutive Olympic gold medals for the national womens hockey program with Hefford, a native of Kingston, Ontario, scoring the game-winning goal in triumph over Team USA. The bid for a fourth straight gold begins Saturday at Shayba Arena with a preliminary round matchup against Switzerland. "Its a memory and a feeling Ill never forget," said Hefford of winning gold for the first time, one of three on the roster to do so in 2002, 2006, and 2010. "It was a special time so Im hoping we can recreate it here [in Sochi]." Getting to that point is certain to include yet another round of hostilities with an American team bent on ending Canadas run of dominance at this event. Though theyve captured four of the past five World Championships, beating the Canadians each time, the US squad has fallen in two of the past three gold medal games, yet to triumph at the Olympics since 1998. "Obviously we haave a great rivalry with them," said Hefford, "but theres a lot of games before then and if we dont take care of ourselves here we could face them either earlier than we want in a medal round or not get to a medal round so its really day-by-day and I think thats the best way to look at it. Replica Jerseys China. " These will be the fifth Olympics for Hefford, but she says the experience remains as fresh and exciting as it was 16 years ago when womens hockey was first introduced to the Olympic stage in Nagano - she and the Canadians were edged by the Americans in the gold medal game. "You still have that youthful energy and that excitement," she said. "Its so exciting to be here. You try to take lessons that you learned along the way and bring them into this one, but it still feels like the first one." And thats just one of the lessons shell try to impart on a group of teammates itching for their first taste of gold - enjoy the moment. "It goes by so quickly and you wait so long to get here so really just take in every day and enjoy that," said Hefford, also advising patience with the teams plan of attack. "Theres tough days and theres going to be challenges in these next two weeks, but believe that in the end we can be where we want to be." ' ' '