■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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