Slovenia's Tina Maze won a World Cup giant slalom Saturday for her second victory this season.
Two Canadian skiers joined Maze on the podium.
PHOTO: AFP
Genevieve Simard finished second, 1.16 seconds behind, and Allison Forsyth was third, 1.22 back.
PHOTO: AFP
Forsyth had the fastest second run of any skier.
She said her team was motivated by fellow Canadian Thomas Grandi's recent back-to-back wins on the men's circuit.
"The team stays very close together," Forsyth said. "They put only four races on Canadian TV all year and this was one of them, besides all Thomas' races now.
Julia Mancuso of the US came in fourth for her best career result.
Tanja Poutiainen of Finland finished sixth and retained her lead atop the overall World Cup standings with 666 points.
Defending overall champion Anja Paerson of Sweden, who fell and injured herself in training on Friday, tied Poutiainen for sixth and remained third overall with 579 points.
"I hurt my hip bone and there is bleeding around it. I didn't know if I could race today," Paerson said.
Croatia's Janica Kostelic, second overall with 613 points, came in 22nd after finishing well behind the leaders in each of her runs.
Hannu Manninen of Finland won a World Cup Nordic Combined event with a strong cross-country race and kept his lead in the overall standings with his fourth victory of the season on Saturday.
Only 19th after the ski jumping, Manninen began the 7.5km race one minute behind leader Daito Takahashi of Japan.
But Manninen came on strong in the race, and won a sprint duel on the last straight with main rival Ronny Ackermann of Germany. Manninen won his 25th World Cup in 19 minutes, 57.6 seconds, Ackermann was 0.5 seconds behind, and Ladislav Rygl of the Czech Republic was third, 5.3 seconds behind the winner.
Battling with Manninen for victory, Ackermann lost a pole on the last lap which decided the duel.
Germany captured a ski jumping event Saturday overshadowed by a serious knee injury to team member Alexander Herr.
Herr's leap of 148m helped the Germans win, but he crashed on a windy, rainy day and was hospitalized with a left knee injury and possible torn ligaments.
The 26-year-old German is expected to miss the world championships, which begin in six weeks. Herr also had surgery on the knee six years ago.
Spaeth uncorked a leap of 147m to seal the win for Germany, which finished with 481.2 points. Finland's four jumpers were second with 466.9, followed by favored Austria at 429.6.
Both Finland's Janne Ahonen, the overall World Cup leader, and Austria's Martin Hoellwarth followed Spaeth with attempts, but couldn't match the German's long leap to give their country the win.
The event, watched by 34,000 spectators, was delayed 30 minutes by rain. Gusting winds also led to the competition being stopped several times.
"It wasn't really a fair competition because of the wind," Germany's Michael Uhrmann said.
Uhrmann jumped 127.5m and Maximilian Mechler 124m for the Germans in addition to Herr's 148m and Spaeth's 147m.
Toby Dawson led a US sweep at a freestyle World Cup moguls event Saturday, while Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic won the women's competition.
Dawson scored 25.50 to take first place, beating Jeremy Bloom and Luke Westerlund. Bloom finished second at 25.34 and Westerlund had 25.19. Margarita Marbler of Austria took second for the women with 25.09, followed by Hannah Kearney of the US with 24.40.
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
Spain starlets Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams dazzled on Thursday as La Roja beat France 5-4 in a thriller in Stuttgart, Germany, to set up a UEFA Nations League final with Portugal. Yamal bagged a brace, while Williams scored and provided an assist as the two wingers cut France’s makeshift defense to ribbons. Mikel Merino and Pedri were also on the score sheet for the UEFA Euro 2024 champions. Kylian Mbappe netted a second-half penalty, but Spain were 5-1 up and cruising, before Les Bleus suddenly woke up as their opponents took their foot off the pedal. France’s three late goals — a
Italy crashed to a 3-0 loss away to Norway, as the four-time FIFA World Cup champions made a disastrous start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign on Friday, while Belgium had to settle for a draw in North Macedonia. Alexander Sorloth, Antonio Nusa and Erling Haaland all scored in the first half in pouring rain in Oslo as Norway made it a night to forget for Italy, who missed out on the past two World Cups. “I have no explanation. Our supporters don’t deserve this kind of match. We need to do some soul-searching. It’s unacceptable,” Italy captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi
The Crusaders yesterday produced a clinical performance in difficult conditions to beat the Queensland Reds 32-12 and claim home advantage in next week’s Super Rugby semi-finals. Lock Scott Barrett and prop Tamaiti Williams scored first-half tries to reward an outstanding performance from the Crusaders’ forwards in wet, slippery conditions and bitterly cold temperatures. Scrumhalf Noah Hotham defied the conditions in the second half to score a superb solo try and, after kicking a conversion and penalty to make the score 22-0 at the hour mark, flyhalf Rivez Reihana scored a try which took the game beyond the Reds. “Typical Christchurch weather, cold, wet