Winter Sports | American Steven Holcomb drives to his third World Cup 4-man bobsled victory in a row

WINTERBERG, Germany — Steven Holcomb of the United States drove to his third consecutive World Cup four-man bobsled victory of the season Sunday, further cementing himself as the 2010 Olympics favorite.

Holcomb and his reigning world-championship team of Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curtis Tomasevicz finished two runs in a combined 1 minute, 50.70 seconds. That was 0.10 of a second ahead of the German sled piloted by defending Olympic champion Andre Lange.

"Anytime the Americans can win here, it's huge," Holcomb said. "The Germans dominate on this track, so winning today feels almost as big as winning the world championships."

It was the sixth time Holcomb's four-man team has won in its last seven events, dating to last season. Holcomb added to his lead in the World Cup overall four-man standings.

"Winning is a combination of a great sled, great push times and great runs," Holcomb said. "My lines are finally coming together, so I think we have all three things necessary to win and to keep winning."

American John Napier was fifth.

"I am ecstatic," Napier said. "I finished behind Holcomb and three Germans, which really isn't a bad position to be in."

Hirscher wins,

Ligety places 10th

VAL D'ISERE, France — Ted Ligety of Park City, Utah, posted a blazing second run to finish 10th in a World Cup giant slalom in the French Alps that Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., skipped to protect a right ankle he injured playing volleyball.

Ligety made errors that cost him more than two seconds in the morning run on the icy Face de Bellevarde course, but stormed back to post the second run's best time, 1 minute, 9.86 seconds.

Marcel Hirscher, 20, of Austria claimed his first World Cup victory, winning ahead of Massimiliano Blardone of Italy and Austrian Benjamin Raich in a combined time of 2:16.28.

Notes

• Lindsey Vonn of Vail, Colo., was eighth in a World Cup slalom in Are, Sweden, losing the overall points lead to Maria Riesch of Germany.

Riesch finished second to Sandrine Aubert of France and leads Vonn 441-421 in the overall standings.

• Luge world champion Erin Hamlin of Remsen, N.Y., was third in a World Cup event in Lillehammer, Norway, for her highest finish in the Cup series. Tatjana Hufner of Germany won the race.

Meanwhile, Tony Benshoof of White Bear Lake, Minn., sealed his third Olympic trip with a ninth-place finish in the Lillehammer men's race.

• Shani Davis of Chicago won the 1,000-meter race in a long-track speedskating World Cup event in Kearns, Utah. It is the final long-track World Cup before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Davis won the 1,500 Friday in world-record time.

Short-track superstar Apolo Ohno of Seattle was there to cheer on his friend.

"He was giving me his view on my race, which was pretty nice," Davis said. "He gave me some tips and some advice."