Sports Briefs

■ Snowboarding
Jacobellis wins hallfpipe
America's Lindsey Jacobellis won her third straight World Cup title Saturday with a victory at a snowboarding halfpipe event in Shiozawa, Japan. Jacobellis, who captured snowboardcross titles on Thursday and Friday, received 40.7 points on her first run at Joetsu Ski Resort to edge Australia's Torah Jane Bright, who was second with a best score of 39.2 points. Kelly Clark of the US was third in Saturday's event. With the victory, Jacobellis picked up 1,000 points and moved into second place in the World Cup overall standings. In the men's event, American Steven Fisher finished first with a best score of 43 points to pick up his first World Cup title of the season. Finland's Antti Autti was second with 42.3 points while Germany's Vinzenz Lueps was third with 38.7 points.

■ Boxing
Blain overcomes Sashcuk
World champion Willy Blain of France was outpointed 37-35 by Igor Sashcuk of Ukraine in a semifinal upset at the European boxing championships in Pula, Croatia on Friday. Sashcuk's reward was a final on Sunday against two-time European champion Alexander Maletin of Russia, who stopped Mustafa Karagollo of Turkey in the second round. Maletin's win, alongside four teammates on Friday, put Russians in nine of the 11 finals this weekend. World and European super-heavyweight champion Alexandre Povetkin stopped Jaroslav Jackso of Lithuania in the third round to earn a title clash against Roberto Cammarelle of Italy, who had a walkover against Sergei Rozhnov of Bulgaria. World championship silver-medalist Alexandre Alekseev of Russia needed only two rounds to beat Konstantin Kupatadze in the heavyweight class. Alekseev will dispute the 91kg final against Zuyev Viktar of Belarus, who received a walkover against Ertugrul Ergezen of Turkey.

■ Rugby
King receives suspension
Workington Darren King on Friday became the second rugby league player this month to be suspended for taking the banned steroid stanozolol. King denied knowingly taking a banned substance, but was found guilty at a hearing in Leeds, England. Three weeks ago Castleford Academy forward Rob Lunt was also banned for two years after testing positive for stanozolol. He is to appeal. King, who made 11 appearances for Workington last season, has not played since the 46-14 victory over Crosfields in the third round of the Challenge Cup Feb. 8.

■ Basketball
Tim Duncan out with injury
NBA MVP Tim Duncan will miss at least one game for the San Antonio Spurs after injuring his left thigh during Thursday's loss at Dallas. A medical exam on Friday determined that Duncan has an irritation of the patellofemoral joint, the area where the thigh bone meets the kneecap, the team said in a brief written statement. He will not play on Saturday at home against Denver, and his condition will be re-evaluated next week. "Obviously it's good news," Spurs spokesman Tom James said of the diagnosis. "It's short-term, rather than long-term." Duncan hobbled to the bench midway through the third quarter of the Spurs' 115-91 loss to the Mavericks on Thursday. At the time, San Antonio trailed by nine points before going on to its most lopsided loss of the season. In 25 minutes, Duncan had 22 points and 17 rebounds.