Josh Dueck 'nearly speechless' at gold-medal win in Sochi

Canada's Josh Dueck has won the gold medal in the men's super combined at the Sochi Paralympics.

Dueck's total time in the super-G portion of the event was two minutes 18.2 seconds, putting him nearly a second ahead of Heath Calhoun, of the United States, and exactly two ahead of Roman Rubl of Austria.

"I'm speechless, over the moon," Dueck said following the race. 

"I knew I had a chance, but there were very good skiers here. They all push it, but today was my day. I had already experienced some very challenging races. But this one was the best."

The super combined is a two-part event including a slalom race and a super-G race.

Dueck, who is paralyzed from the waist down, sat in fifth after the slalom races, which were held on Tuesday. But those ahead of him struggled in the super-G. Japan's Taiki Morii, who'd been in third, crashed and did not finish the race, while Calhoun, Rubl and Germany's Thomas Nolte simply could not match Dueck's time.

The conditions of the hill caused many of the racers to apply some caution on their runs.

The medal is Dueck's second of the 2014 Games — he won silver in the men's sitting downhill — and Canada's third gold. 

He competes next in the 

"This is for my country, for my team," Dueck said of his next race, the sitting giant slalom on Saturday (2:45 a.m. ET on cbc.ca/paralympics.) "I just need a good night. Tomorrow I will wake up, open the windows and if conditions are good, I just go for it."

Luscombe falls out of silver medal

Canadian Braydon Luscombe, who was in second place after his first run in the super-G standing classification, crashed on his second run and missed out on a medal. 

Alexey Bugaev of Russia won gold with a time of 2:09.72. Austria's Matthias Lanzinger finished second in 2:10.82 while Toby Kane of Australia took the bronze with a time of 2:14.14.

Kirk Schornstein, of Spruce Grove, Alta., finished in 12th place with a time of 2:22.07.