BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) --Ning Zhongyan, who had collected two bronzes in the 1,000m and team pursuit, clocked one minute 41.98 seconds to secure China's first-ever Olympic gold in the men's 1,500m speed skating at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Thursday.

Oriol Cardona Coll of Spain and Switzerland's Marianne Fatton captured the first-ever Olympic ski mountaineering gold medals in the respective men's and women's sprint events.

In Nordic combined, Norway's Jens Luraas Oftebro and Andreas Skoglund clinched gold in the men's team sprint, holding off Finland by just half a second in a dramatic cross-country battle amid swirling snow. Oftebro secured his third gold of the Games, while Skoglund earned his first Olympic medal. Austria took bronze.

Also on Thursday, the United States edged Canada 2-1 in overtime to claim the women's ice hockey gold, while American figure skater Alysa Liu triumphed in the women's event with a total score of 226.79 points.

Defending champion Gu Ailing overcame an early scare to advance to the women's freeski halfpipe final. Competing first, the Chinese star fell on her opening run but regrouped to score 86.50 on her second attempt, finishing fifth in the qualification. Three other Chinese skiers, Li Fanghui, Zhang Kexin and Liu Yishan, also progressed.