Germany's team of Daniela Anschütz, Anni Friesinger, Lucille Opitz, Claudia Pechstein and Sabine Völker defeat the Canadian team for the women's gold medal. Russia takes bronze. (CBC) Figure skating, men's free skate Three-time world champion Russian Evgeni Plushenko takes an unsurprising gold medal after a first-place free skate and short program. Switzerland's Stéphane Lambiel takes silver, while Canadian Jeffrey Buttle overcomes a poor short program to finish in third place. (CBC) Skeleton Two-time world champion Maya Pedersen sets the two fastest times to win the Skeleton, and Switzerland's first gold of the Games. Shelley Rudman wins silver, the UK's first medal of any color. Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards takes bronze for Canada. 15 February 2006 (Wednesday) Football: 2005–06 UEFA Cup – Round of 32, First leg. Litex Lovech 0–2 Strasbourg Schalke 04 2–1 Espanyol Heerenveen 1–3 Steaua Bucharest Hertha Berlin 0–1 Rapid Bucharest FC Basel 1–0 AS Monaco Real Betis 2–0 AZ Alkmaar Rosenborg 0–2 Zenit St. Petersburg Artmedia Bratislava 0–1 Levski Sofia Bolton Wanderers 0–0 Marseille Lille 3–2 Shakhtar Donetsk Udinese 3–0 Lens Lokomotiv Moscow 0–1 Sevilla Club Brugge 1–2 Roma (UEFA.com) XX Winter Olympic Games, Turin, day five: Alpine skiing: Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria wins the women's downhill. Martina Schild of Switzerland and Anja Pärson of Sweden complete the podium. (CBC.ca) Nordic combined: High winds in the ski jumping hill force the jury to abandon the team competition midway through the second round. The teams will resume tomorrow. (NBC Olympics) Short track speed skating: Wang Meng wins the women's 500-m race, capturing the first gold medal in the Turin Games for China. Bulgaria's Evgenia Radanova takes the silver, while Canada's Anouk Leblanc-Boucher claims the bronze. (CBC.ca) Freestyle skiing: Transplanted Canadian skier Dale Begg-Smith wins Australia's first gold medal in men's moguls. (CBC.ca) Jason McElwain, a high school senior with autism, scored 20 points in his first and only high school basketball game. Video footage of the game made international headlines. 14 February 2006 (Tuesday) Cricket: 2005–06 VB Series Australia defeat Sri Lanka by 9 wickets at Brisbane Cricket Ground after 45.3 overs. Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat. After being 2–28, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene put on a 100 run partnership. Jayawardene went on to score 86 off 91 balls. Russel Arnold made 76 off 71. Sri Lanka's final score was 266–9 off 50 overs. In Australia's innings, openers Adam Gilchrist and Simon Katich scored centuries