Sports Briefing
Seattle's Ohno leads after first short-track stop

AGENCE ZOOM / GETTY American Bode Miller beat second-place Massimiliano Blardone by 1.17 seconds in yesterday's World Cup event.

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SPEEDSKATING

Ohno leads after first stop: Apolo Anton Ohno of Seattle is first in the men's overall standings after the first stop of this season's World Cup short-track circuit.

He finished second in the 3,000 meters and fourth in the 1,000 yesterday in Harbin, China, with both races won by Ahn Hyun-soo of South Korea.

In the 3,000, Ohno finished in 5 minutes, 1.098 seconds to Ahn's 4:59.733. In the 1,000, Ohno clocked a 1:28.732 behind Ahn's 1:27.907. Song Kyung-taek (1:28.070) of South Korea took second and China's Li JiaJun (1:28.268) third.

Ohno, who won the 1,500 on Friday and the 500 on Saturday, leads the overall standings with 97 points, eight ahead of Ahn.

Choi Eun-kyung of South Korea won the women's 1000 in 1:33.629, and Jin Sun-yu, also of South Korea, won the women's 3,000 in 5:04.798.

China's Wang Meng leads the overall women's standings with 90 points.

There are six World Cup events this season.

SKIING

Miller wins giant slalom: Bode Miller's quest to become the first American in more than two decades to win the World Cup overall title got off to the perfect start.
 
Miller captured the season-opening giant slalom by more than a second yesterday in Soelden, Austria, reasserting his dominance of the discipline he won last season.

No American has won the overall title since Yakima's Phil Mahre in 1983, but Miller believes he is ready to break that drought. He finished fourth overall last season.

"I just turned 27 a week ago and I think I'm at the point where I have a lot of experience. I know all the hills, I know what it takes to win on them, even if I haven't won on them yet. I have what it takes. I think the sky is the limit," Miller said.

The victory was the 13th of Miller's career, including seven in giant slalom. He also has three slalom wins and three in combined events.

Miller reached the bottom of the Rettenbach Gletscher course in a two-run time of 2:16.44, a whopping 1.17 seconds ahead of Italy's Massimiliano Blardone.

OLYMPICS

Annus returns gold medal: Hungarian hammer thrower Adrian Annus returned the gold medal he forfeited because of a doping violation at the Athens Olympics, but said he hopes to get it back after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

CAS has not yet set a date for a hearing in the case.

Annus was disqualified for failing to take a post-Olympics drug test ordered by the IOC, which suspected samples he gave in Athens were manipulated.

Japan's Koji Murofushi was awarded the gold, while Ivan Tikhon of Belarus gained the silver and Turkey's Esref Apak took the bronze.

Figure skating

Totmianina sustained concussion: World champion pairs skater Tatiana Totmianina was released from a hospital in Pittsburgh, a day after sustaining a concussion in a fall during the free-skating program at Skate America.

Tennis

Molik upsets Sharapova: Australia's Alicia Molik beat Maria Sharapova 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, snapping the Russian's 12-match winning streak and capturing the Swisscom Challenge title in Zurich, Switzerland.

Safin overwhelms Nalbandian to win title: Marat Safin defeated David Nalbandian 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 to win the $3 million Madrid Masters in Spain and moved closer to locking up a berth in the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Houston next month.

Safin earned $534,000 and captured 100 points, moving him ahead of Britain's Tim Henman into sixth place in the battle for the eight spots in the Tennis Masters Cup.

Horse racing

Sulamani wins, may retire: Sulamani overtook Simonas down the stretch, then cruised to a 1-1/2-length victory at the $1.5 million Pattison Canadian International at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

Sulamani, with Frankie Dettori aboard, finished the 1-1/2-mile turf race in 2:28.64 and paid $3.70, $2.70 and $2.30. Simonas, a 21-1 longshot, returned $11 and $5.70, and Brian Boru paid $3.60 to show.

The win was the ninth in 17 career starts for Sulamani and the $900,000 winner's share boosted his career earnings to over $5 million.

Afterward, Simon Crisford, the racing manager for Godolphin, the international stable that owns Sulamani, said retirement is a real possibility for the prized 5-year-old.

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