Roundup: Austrian skier prevails again

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — Michael Walchhofer won his second World Cup downhill race in two days, leading a 1-2-3 Austrian sweep ahead of Bode Miller yesterday and closing in on the discipline title.

Walchhofer easily won Friday's downhill and again tamed the Kandahar course, finishing in 1 minute, 56.50 seconds yesterday for his third consecutive World Cup downhill victory overall.

"It was bumpier and more difficult today," Walchhofer said. "But I did it, and it is really satisfying after all the troubles I've had here in the past."

Walchhofer finally shook off a long trend of crashing on the final turn here.

Teammate Mario Scheiber was second in 1:56.59 and reigning Olympic champion Fritz Strobl was third in 1:56.95.

Miller, who is from Franconia, N.H., finished fourth in 1:57.03. Daron Rahlves of Sugar Bowl, Calif., was fifth. Scott Macartney of Redmond placed 50th.

"I made two mistakes, one that cost me almost a second," said Miller, who led at the first two intervals in the previous day's downhill but lost time after going wide coming out of the bothersome FIS-Schneise turn and settled for third Friday.

"The way I've been skiing these days, it's pretty disappointing to be making those kinds of mistakes. It's pretty frustrating."

But Miller added to his advantage over Austria's Benjamin Raich in the overall World Cup standings. Miller has 1,203 points, 167 more than Raich.

In the downhill standings, Walchhofer leads with 631 points. He is 143 points ahead of Miller.

With two downhills left on the men's World Cup schedule and 200 points available, it will be difficult for Miller to overtake Walchhofer.

The two races left are in Kvitfjell, Norway, and the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

"For every downhiller, the World Cup title is a dream, and at the moment it looks very good for me," Walchhofer said.

Dorfmeister wins

Anja Paerson, world champion and defending World Cup overall champ, finished fifth before her home fans.

Dorfmeister won in 1 minute, 7.53 seconds.

Lindsey Kildow of Vail, Colo., placed seventh.

• Steve Omischl and Kyle Nissen led Canada to a 1-2 finish in a World Cup freestyle aerials event in Sauze d'Oulx, Italy. Evelyne Lue of Switzerland took the women's title.

• Two-time Olympic champion Julija Tchepalova of Russia won the women's 15-kilometer pursuit at the Nordic Skiing World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Meanwhile, Rok Benkovic won the gold in ski jumping for Slovenia's first medal at a Nordic championships.

• Switzerland's Daniela Mueli edged Austria's Doris Guenther in a parallel slalom race in Sapporo, Japan, to win her third straight snowboarding World Cup event.

Switzerland's Philipp Schoch took the men's title.

• Italy's Armin Zoeggeler clinched his fifth luge world championship, posting the fastest two runs of the day in Park City, Utah, for a combined time of 1:30.617. Germany's Georg Hackl was second.

Zoeggeler also won world singles titles in 1995, 1999, 2001 and 2003.

• Japan's Fumie Suguri won the women's final at the Four Continents figure-skating competition in Gangneung, South Korea, and qualified for the world championships over countrywoman Yoshie Onda.

• Jennifer Rodriguez of Miami won the gold medal in the 1,000 meters at a World Cup long-track speedskating competition in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Her time was 1:15.65.

KC Boutiette of Tacoma placed eighth in the men's 10,000.