Six sets of medals will be contested on Feb 12 in Sochi

SOCHI. KAZINFORM Six sets of medals will be contested at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on Wednesday, February 12. Russian athletes have good chances in figure skating and speed skating. Two men's ice hockey matches are due in the evening.

At 11:00 women Alpine skiers will contest downhill medals. Injured Lindsy Vonn is absent, so the main favourite left is Germany's Maria Hoefl-Riesch, who has already won the gold in Sochi in the supercombined. Her main contenders are basically the same as in the first women's Alpine skiing discipline on the Olympic schedule, Itar-Tass reports. Anna Fenninger, of Austria, Lara Gut, of Switzerland, Tina Maze, of Slovenia, and Julia Mancuso, of the United States, will try to do something to compensate for their failure in the supercombined. Mancuso was first in the supercombined after the downhill (while Hoefl-Rissch finished fifth) only to end up with the bronze. Fenninger, Gut and Maze won nothing. Russia will be represented by Maria Bedareva and Yelena Yakovishina. Yakovishina participated in the supercombined to have placed 14th, while Bedareva at the latest stages of the World Cup was near 50th place. Nordic Combined is due at 13:30. First, men will compete in ski jumping, and then, in a ten-kilometer cross country race (starting at 16:30). Germany's Eric Frenzel is believed to have the best chances to win. He is the leader of this season's World Cup, a bronze medalist of the Vancouver Olympics. Vancouver Olympics champion and world champion Jason Lamy-Chappuis, of France, and Norway's Magnus Hovdal Moan are his main rivals. The performance of Russia's 20-year-old Yevgeny Klimov is expected with some interest. At last year's world championships he placed 49th, but performed pretty well in youth competitions. He should not be expected to produce miracles, though, just as other Russian participants in this event, Niyaz Nabeyev, Ivan Panin and Ernest Yakhin. Details also at