February 2006 in Sports - 12 February 2006 (Sunday)

12 February 2006 (Sunday)

• Football: NFL
  • In the Pro Bowl, the NFL's season finale, played in Hawaii, the NFC took advantage of six turnovers by the AFC as the NFC squad won 23–17. Tampa Bay's Derrick Brooks was named the game's most valuable player.
• Auto racing: NASCAR
  • Rookie Denny Hamlin, who qualified for the Bud Shootout by winning the pole for the fall race at Phoenix International Raceway last season, stuns the field by winning the invitation-only event over teammate Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who both finished in a dead heat for second.
• Rugby Union: 2006 Six Nations Championship
  • Wales 28–18 Scotland
    • Scotland score two tries (one unconverted) in the last minutes to make a more respectable score, but they were never in the match after being reduced to 14 men after 20 minutes.
• XX Winter Olympic Games, Turin
  • Alpine skiing, men's downhill:
    • Antoine Dénériaz of France claims victory 0.72 seconds ahead of Austria's Michael Walchhofer, who had staved off attacks from all other Austrians, Norwegians and Americans before going down to the Frenchman, who "pulled off a startling upset" according to NBC. (NBC Olympics)
  • Cross country skiing:
    • 7.5+7.5 km double pursuit, women: Kristina Šmigun wins Estonia's first gold medal at these Games by overtaking Kateřina Neumannová on the final stretch. (NBC Olympics)
    • 15+15 km double pursuit, men: Russia's Yevgeny Dementiev wins an event decided in the final 100 metres, overtaking several skiers to win a three-man sprint. Frode Estil takes the fifth medal for Norway in these Games, but fails to reach gold; Estil broke his ski in a fall at the start, but caught up with the pack to beat Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer and win silver. (CBC.ca)
  • Figure skating: Michelle Kwan (United States) withdrew from the Ladies' Figure Skating competition due to her illness and injuries. Despite not winning an Olympic Gold Medal, Kwan finishes her career as a five time World Champion and nine time US Champion. Emily Hughes, pending approval from IOC and the ISU, will be Kwan's replacement.
  • Ice hockey, women's group stage:
    • Group A:
      Canada 12–0 Russia: Despite angry e-mails following their record 16–0 win over Italy in the tournament opener (Reuters/Yahoo), the Canadian women have now outscored their opposition 28–0.
    • Group B:
      Germany 0–5 United States
  • Luge, men's singles:
    • Defending Olympic and World champion Armin Zöggeler takes the first gold medal for the host nation by defending his lead in the singles competition, ahead of Russian Albert Demtschenko and Latvian Martins Rubenis (CBC.ca)
  • Short track speed skating, men's 1500 meters:
    • Koreans Ahn Hyung-soo and Lee Ho-suk win the first medals for their country, and make it a 1–2 finish, and Li Jiajun makes it an all-Asian podium. Defending Olympic champion Apolo Ohno stumbles in the penultimate lap of the semi-final, fails to qualify, and eventually finishes eighth. (AP)
  • Ski jumping, normal hill (HS106):
    • Lars Bystøl is the first Norwegian to strike gold in Turin; he leapt from seventh to first place by soaring 103.5 metres in the second round to claim gold ahead of Matti Hautamäki, Finland, and another Norwegian, Roar Ljøkelsøy. (Reuters)
  • Snowboarding, men's halfpipe:
    • Americans Shaun White (46.8 points) and Danny Kass (44.0 points) claims gold and silver at the halfpipe event, keeping the defending World Champion Antti Autti out of the podium. Mason Aguirre also takes fourth place, but Finn Markku Koski splits the Americans with a run worth 41.5 points (CBC.ca).
  • Speed skating, Women's 3000 metres:
    • The Dutch women complete the third 1–2 finish of the day; 19-year-old Ireen Wüst skates a time of 4:02.43 in the tenth pair and watches as all the remaining skaters finish behind her. Renate Groenewold beats Canadian Cindy Klassen in their pair, but the two end up taking silver and bronze. Anni Friesinger, who was, along with Klassen, considered a favourite by CBC, finished outside the podium. (CBC.ca)
• Cricket: 2005–06 VB Series – Second Final
  • Australia defeat Sri Lanka to level the best of three final 1 all.
    • Australia scored 368/5 off their fifty overs after being 10/3 at the start of the 3rd over. Both Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds scored centuries. Muttiah Muralitharan finished the innings with figures of 99/0 off 10 overs, the most expensive in ODI history for a 10 over spell. In reply, Sri Lanka ended all out on 201, with Mahela Jayawardene and Russel Arnold scoring half centuries. The series will now be decided on the 14th of February at the Brisbane Cricket Ground. Andrew Symonds was named man of the match. Australia won the match by 167 runs.