Ivica Kostelic of Croatia won a World Cup slalom on the Jungfrau course yesterday for his first victory of the season.
Kostelic maintained his first-leg lead for a two-run time of 1 minute, 40.34 seconds to collect his 10th career World Cup victory.
The 30-year-old Croat returned to action on Jan. 6, less than four weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. He is also troubled by constant back pain. Kostelic, the 2002 World Cup slalom champion, dropped to his knees and kissed the snow after arriving in the finish area.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Andre Myhrer of Sweden was 0.29 back in second and Austria’s Reinfried Herbst trailed Kostelic by 0.51 in third.
Herbst extended his lead in the World Cup slalom standings over Julien Lizeroux of France, who placed fifth after winning last week at Adelboden, Switzerland.
Benjamin Raich of Austria finished fourth and closed the gap in the overall standings to 18 points behind Switzerland’s Carlo Janka.
Janka watched the race on television at home in Obersaxen after winning the classic Lauberhorn downhill race on Saturday. He holds a 757-739 lead on Raich, the 2006 overall champion.
■MEN’S SKI JUMPING
AFP, SAPPORO, JAPAN
Salt Lake City dual gold medalist Simon Ammann of Switzerland posted his fourth win of the season at the World Cup ski jumping in Sapporo yesterday.
The 28-year-old Swiss scored 293.1 points from two jumps of 139.5m and 135m, beating Japan’s veteran Noriaki Kasai in second place on 255.7 points.
It was Ammann’s 12th World Cup win since his first victory at Oslo in 2002.
Martin Koch of Austria finished third with 255.4 points.
■WOMEN’S GIANT SLALOM
AFP, MARIBOR, SLOVENIA
Austrian Kathrin Zettel notched up a memorable double yesterday when she added the World Cup slalom title to her giant slalom success 24 hours earlier.
Zettel clocked a combined total over two runs of 1minute, 42.98 seconds, 0.71seconds ahead of Slovenian Tina Maze, with Maria Riesch of Germany at 1.28 seconds, enough to leapfrog American Lindsey Vonn to the head of the World Cup overall standings.
Zettel’s teammate Marlies Schild had looked good for at least a spot on the podium after blazing the first run but straddled a gate as she forced the pace on the second.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB