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■SOCCER

Toulouse move into second

Toulouse moved into second place in Ligue 1 on Saturday with a 1-1 draw at Auxerre, but they needed a goal 10 minutes from time to stay on course for a European place next season. Bryan Bergougnoux found the target in the 80th minute to equalize Polish striker Ireneusz Jelen’s 26th-minute opener for Auxerre. Strugglers Valenciennes scotched Lille’s attempts to have a say in the French title race with a 2-0 success. Lille, who enjoyed a brief foray in the Champions League three seasons ago, stay sixth after goals in quick succession from Gael Danic and former Glasgow Rangers striker Jean-Claude Darcheville around the half-hour mark put paid to their lofty ambitions. Elsewhere on Saturday, Nice saw their hopes of bagging a potential place in Europe fade after a 1-0 loss at Sochaux, now level on points with fourth-bottom Caen. Nantes and Grenoble shared a 1-1 draw and Le Mans moved away from the danger zone with a 2-0 home win over a Le Havre side who appear doomed after a 19th league defeat left them 10 points behind St Etienne.



■ALPINE SKIING

Ligety wins giant slalom

Ted Ligety of the US won a giant slalom race on Saturday for his fourth career victory. Ligety, who was third after the opening leg, finished in a combined time of 2 minutes, 19.92 seconds to beat Didier Cuche of Switzerland by 0.19 seconds. Massimiliano Blardone of Italy was 0.34 seconds back in third. Ligety had a flawless second run on the Pokoren course, which was set by US head coach Sasha Rearick, and became the first American to win in 27 men’s World Cup races this season. “It’s a fantastic hill, I like it here,” Ligety said. “If my coach sets the course, that’s obviously good for me. Many courses this season were very quick, I like it better with more turns.” With just one giant slalom remaining at the season-ending races in Are, Sweden, Cuche leads the discipline standings with 414 points, 52 points clear of Austria’s Benjamin Raich. Ligety has 341 points in third.



■SOCCER

AZ Alkmaar extend streak

AZ Alkmaar extended their unbeaten streak to 23 games on Saturday by beating FC Groningen 3-0 in the Dutch league. Graziano Pelle scored two goals, first converting Gill Swerts’ cross in the third minute and then scoring from a free header in the 57th minute. Moussa Dembele’s solo effort wrapped up the win in the 83rd minute. Elsewhere, Everton scored in the 50th minute and added another two minutes later in Heracles Almelo’s 3-0 win over Willem II. Ricky van den Bergh also scored as Heracles ended their nine-game winless run. Kris De Wree, Andres Oper and Marcel de Jong got the goals for Roda JC in a 3-1 win over struggling De Graafschap. Ben Sahar, who is on loan from Chelsea, scored a 46th-minute goal for De Graafschap. NAC Breda beat Sparta Rotterdam 3-1, helped by goals from Nourdin Boukhari, Rob Penders and Csaba Feher. Ruud Knol scored a 20th-minute consolation goal for Sparta.



■ALPINE SKIING

Vonn clinches downhill title

Lindsey Vonn of the US won the World Cup downhill championship on Saturday, despite a 12th-place finish in Bulgaria. The 24-year-old clinched her second straight title in the discipline — the only American to do so since Picabo Street in 1995 and 1996. Vonn was well down the field on Saturday, but her time of 1 minute, 48.0 seconds was enough with only one downhill race remaining this season. Andrea Fischbacher of Austria won in 1 minute, 45.81 seconds, edging Slovenian Tina Maze.



■BOXING

Marquez consolidates titles

Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico stamped himself as the world’s top lightweight with a ninth-round knockout of American Juan Diaz in a thrilling title unification fight at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, on Saturday. Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) won the vacant WBA and WBO lightweight belts, plus Diaz’s minor IBO title, finishing off the Houston native with a right uppercut at 2:40 of the ninth round on Saturday. Earlier in the evening, Indonesia’s Chris John retained his WBA featherweight title by fighting American Rocky Juarez to an entertaining draw. John (42-0-2), making his North American debut, successfully defended his belt for an 11th time. He wanted to put on a good show in Houston to catapult himself to more fights — and bigger purses — in the US. John seemed to take control of the fight in the middle rounds, but Juarez rallied to take the final two. All three judges scored the fight 114-114.



■SUPERBIKE

Spies wins second race

American Ben Spies prevented a two-race sweep by Japanese rider Noriyuki Haga, winning the second race on the opening weekend of the Superbike World Championship season at Phillip Island, Australia. Haga, riding a Ducati, won the first race in 34 minutes, 22.631 seconds, just .032 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Max Neukirchner of Germany on a Suzuki. Yukio Kagayama of Japan, on a Suzuki, was third, 5.347 seconds behind Haga. Spies, who won Saturday’s Superpole qualifying race to take pole position yesterday, won the second race in 34:20.457 on a Honda, holding off Haga by 1.286 seconds. Leon Haslam of Britain was third on a Honda, 4.213 seconds behind. The results put Haga top of the championship standings with 45 points — 25 for the win and 20 for his second place. Spies was the first American to win a world Superbike race at Phillip Island since Colin Edwards in 2001. The next round in the 14-round series will be in Doha, Qatar on March 14.



■NORDIC SKIING

Demong earns first world’s

Bill Demong went from blunderer to world champion and Justyna Kowalczyk earned her second gold medal at the Nordic skiing world championships in Liberec, Czech Republic, on Saturday. Demong bounced back from losing his bib in the team competition to earn his first world title by taking the Nordic combined large hill event. Kowalczyk pulled away from seven rivals 1km from the end to take the women’s 30km cross-country race. In the ski jumping team event, Austria lived up to expectations by taking gold ahead of Norway and Japan. Demong erased a 52-second deficit to Jason Lamy Chappuis of France and then pulled away from Bjoern Kircheisen of Germany near the end to finish in 23 minutes, 36.6 seconds at the world championships. Kircheisen was 12.8 seconds back for silver, while Lamy Chappuis finished 31.4 back in third.



■SKELETON

Staehli takes gold

Gregor Staehli of Switzerland has won the men’s competition at the skeleton world championships at Lake Placid, New York. Staehli finished the three heats on Saturday in 2 minutes, 46.58 seconds to beat Adam Pengilly of Britain by 0.35 seconds. World Cup champion Alexander Tretiakov of Russia won the bronze. The second heat of competition on Friday was canceled because of irregular track conditions.


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