Latvia’s Anna Orlova, a veteran of the women’s luge event, has once again bettered her Olympic performance, this time finishing seventh overall.

Orlova’s total time after the fourth run on Feb. 14 was 3 minutes, 9.483 seconds. That was just over 1.5 seconds more than gold medal winner Sylke Otto, according to results posted on the official Web site of the Winter Olympics, www.torino2006.org.

Making her fifth Olympic appearance on Feb. 13, the 33-year-old Orlova finished in 11th place after the first run and moved to ninth after the second run. She nudged herself up to eighth place after the third run on Feb. 14.

Orlova’s Olympic debut was in 1992 at Albertville, where she finished 11th overall. Two years later, in Lillehammer, she finished ninth. During the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano she slipped to 13th place, but jumped back to ninth in the Salt Lake City games four years ago.

Two other Latvian women competed in the luge event at Cesana Pariol, Italy. Maija Tīruma finished 17th with a time of 3:13.044, while Aiva Aparjode was right behind her in 18th place with a combined time of 3:13.065.

A new weekly magazine, Republika.lv, is set to debut Feb. 17 and promises to cover Latvian current affairs in society, politics, the economy, culture and sports.

The magazine, with an initial press run of 25,000, will have 48 pages and is to include original poetry and prose, photojournalism, and interviews with international and Latvian public figures, Editor Laura Krastiņa said in a Feb. 14 press release.

Publisher of the magazine will be SIA Žurnāls, which is controlled by businessman Viesturs Koziols, known in Latvia as a real estate investor and president of the hockey club Rīga 2000. Koziols wanted to create the publication because, according to the press release, Latvia lacks a quality weekly magazine for socially and economically active residents.

The magazine will have an advisory board whose members are to include well-known experts such as sociologist Ābrams Kleckins of the University of Latvia, businessman Gundars Margēvičs of the automobile sales company Aura Auta, journalist Pauls Timrots and public relations specialist Kristians Rozenvalds.

A Web site, www.republika.lv is scheduled to also open on Feb. 17, Krastiņa told Latvians Online. The site will allow readers to subscribe to the publication as well as to learn about the magazine’s contents.

Biathlonist Madara Līduma of Latvia finished 11th overall in the women’s 15-kilometer individual event Feb. 13 during the Winter Olympics in Italy.

Līduma recorded a total time of 52 minutes, 27.2 seconds, just over 3 minutes behind gold medal winner Svetlana Ishmouratova of Russia.

This is the first Olympics for the 23-year-old native of Gulbene.

Veteran biathlonist Anžela Brice finished 49th overall with a time of 56:30.5, according to results posted on the official Olympics Web site, www.torino2006.org. She finished 63rd overall in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Linda Savļaka of Latvia finished 64th with a time of 59:44.3, while Gerda Krūmiņa was 71st with a time of 1 hour, 26.1 seconds. This was the Olympic debut for both women.

A total of 82 women competed in the event held at the Cesana San Sicario venue.