Russia and Poland won two gold medals each on day eight of the Winter Olympics, although Germany remains at the top of the medal table. 

Austria’s Anna Fenninger and Nicole Hosp took gold and bronze respectively in the women’s Super G skiing, with Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany winning silver.

Australia’s Greta Small missed a gate after the last jump and recorded a DNF in what was her third of five events in Sochi. 17 others in the 48-strong field suffered the same fate.

“It was a really tough Super G,” said the 18-year-old. “It is really unusual for that amount of people to go out. I did readjust my line coming into that solitary jump but it just wasn’t quite enough and I didn’t finish. I am annoyed with myself but that is the nature of the sport.”

Gold in the women’s short track skating 1500 metres went to China’s Yang Zhou, from South Korea’s Suk Hee Shim and Italy’s Arianna Fontana.

Australia’s Deanna Lockett came 26th, failing to make the first three in her race to progress to the semi-final. “I was definitely nervous today,” Lockett said after the race

“Everyone went out and I was stuck on the outside,” she said. “I couldn’t get to the front so I had to go back. I used all my energy and then I started to get panicky.”

The skeleton was won by local favourite Alexander Tretiakov of Russia, with silver to Latvia’s Martins Dukurs and bronze to Matthew Antoine of the US.

Australian John Farrow came 17th in the event after posting his fastest time in the fourth and final run, reaching 128.5 km/h. This was 31-year-old Farrow’s debut Olympics and he said he was excited about his prospects for the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.

It was the best result by an Australian in the event. “Sean Boyle was the first in Torino in 22nd and Anthony Deane who I’m really good friends with was 23rd in Vancouver. To be able to bump that up by a good few places for Australia is great. I’m really happy with that, I’m over the moon and it sets me up for another four years,” he said.

Poland’s ski jumping superstar Kamil Stoch won the large hill individual event from Japan’s Noriaki Kasai and Slovenia’s Peter Prevc. It was Stoch’s second gold medal of the Games, after he took out the normal hill event on the first weekend of competition.

The women’s 4x5km cross country skiing relay was won by Sweden from Finland and Germany.

The 1500 metres speed skating was won by Poland’s Zbigniew Brodka, who broke the Dutch stranglehold in the event. He won from Koen Verweij of the Netherlands and Denny Morrison of Canada.

Russia ‘quinellad’ the 1000 metres short track skating, with Victor An winning from Vladimir Grigorev. Sjinkie Knegt from the Netherlands took bronze.