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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, December 15, 2008

Riesch captures Cup slalom race

Associated Press

LA MOLINA, Spain — Maria Riesch of Germany held on to win a women's World Cup slalom yesterday, and Lindsey Vonn of the United States took second to reclaim the lead in the overall standings.

Riesch, who led after the first run, nearly skidded off the top section but recovered to finish in 59.17 seconds and win with a combined time of 1:52.98, 1.48 seconds better than Vonn. Kathrin Zettel of Austria was third in 1:55.34.

Vonn, the defending overall champion, moved back into first in the standings with 438 points after Tanja Poutiainen of Finland finished sixth. The Finnish skier, who won Saturday's giant slalom, trails by 38 points.

Vonn also stayed at the top of the slalom standings with 230 points, 30 more than Riesch after three races.

Riesch had the fastest times in both runs to pick up her first slalom victory since a win in Levi, Finland, nearly five years ago. She finished the morning run in 53.81 seconds on the way to her seventh World Cup victory.

ELSEWHERE

Shani Davis of the United States set a rink record in the 1,000 meters yesterday to win his second title at the distance in as many days at a World Cup speedskating meet in Nagano, Japan. Davis won in 1 minute, 8.92 seconds. China's Yu Jing won the women's 500 in 38.63, and Canada's Christine Nesbitt won the women's 1,000 in 1:16.38.

Fumihisa Yumoto of Japan won his first World Cup ski jump meet of the season yesterday. Yumoto jumped 126 meters on his first attempt and didn't have to defend the result after adverse weather forced the cancellation of the second jump in Pragelato, Italy.

Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway and Petra Majdic of Slovenia won their second straight cross-country World Cup sprint races yesterday in Davos, Switzerland. Hattestad got his fourth career World Cup win over the men's 1.7-kilometer distance. Majdic, the women's defending World Cup sprint champion, got her eighth World Cup win in the 1.4-kilometer event.

Natalie Geisenberger of Germany won her first luge World Cup race yesterday and ended teammate Tatjana Huefner's nine-race winning streak in Winterberg, Germany. Geisenberger set a course record in the first heat and won in an aggregate time of 1 minute, 52.633 seconds.

Russia won both the men's and women's season-opening relay races in the biathlon World Cup yesterday in Hochfilzen, Austria. The Russian team of Ivan Tcherezov, Maxim Tchoudov, Maxim Maksimov and Nikolay Kruglov led the 7.5-kilometer men's relay in 1 hour, 24 minutes, 22.97 seconds. In the women's 6K relay, Svetlana Sleptsova, Olga Medvedtseva, Ekaterina Iourieva and Albina Akhatova won in 1:10:49.58.

Alexsandr Zubkov of Russia won a four-man bobsled race in Igls, Austria yesterday, edging Steven Holcomb of the United States for his first World Cup victory of the season. Zubkov and teammates Roman Oreshnikov, Dmitry Trunenkov and Dmitry Stepushkin won in an aggregate time of 1 minute, 42.34 seconds.