Austrian Maier Adds to Success in Colorado

Hermann Maier of Austria continued his dominance at Beaver Creek, Colo., on Saturday, winning a World Cup downhill for his seventh victory in nine races on the Birds of Prey course.

“If I don’t get the house as a present, I have earned enough prize money here, maybe I can buy one,” he said.

Skiing aggressively and brushing gates along the way, Maier, covered the 1.6-mile course in 1 minute 40.66 seconds

Lasse Kjus of Norway finished second at 1:41.15. Chad Fleischer was the top American, finishing 13th at 1:42.14.

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Irina Slutskaya of Russia won figure skating’s NHK Trophy at Asahikawa, Japan. Her countryman, Yevgeny Plushenko, took the lead going into today’s program that will decide the final of today’s men’s competition.

Elvis Stojko of Canada withdrew because of a lingering groin injury.

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Amy Peterson of the United States won a bronze medal in the women’s 500 meters at the speedskating World Cup in Nobeyama, Japan.

Peterson finished behind Chinese skaters Chunlu Wang (45.336) and Yang Yang (45.434). In the men’s 500, Canada’s Francois-Louis Tremblay won in 42.234 seconds.

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Americans Jean Racine and Jennifer Davidson won the doubles race at the bobsledding World Cup at Winterberg, Germany.

Racine and Davidson completed their two runs in 1 minute 56.33 seconds--.02 of a second ahead of Francoise Burdet and Katharina Sutter of Switzerland.

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Americans Joe Pack and Eric Bergoust, the 1998 Olympic gold medalist, placed first and second, respectively in World Cup freestyle skiing at Blackcomb Mountain at Whistler, British Columbia.

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Germany took the top two places in the men’s doubles and women’s singles races at a luge World Cup at Oberhof, Germany.

In the women’s race, Sylke Otto beat Olympic champion Silke Kraushaar.

Steffen Skel and Steffen Woeller won the men’s race in 1:23.991. The top Americans, Mark Grimette and Brian Martin, finished eighth.

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Renate Goetschl of Austria won the women’s World Cup super-giant slalom at Lake Louise, Canada. . . . Rene Spies, of Germany, held off countryman Andre Lange in the doubles to capture the first bobsledding World Cup race of his career at Altenberg, Germany in 1:53.07. . . . Matti Hautamaki, 19, of Finland, won the Ski Jump World Cup event at Kuopio, Finland, after the second round was canceled because of rain. Hautamaki scored 111.1 points with a jump of 119.5 meters, and took the lead in the World Cup standings with 150 points . . . Rene Spies of Germany held off countryman Andre Lange in the doubles to capture the first bobsledding World Cup race of his career at Altenberg, Germany. . . . Norway took the lead on the second leg and easily won the first women’s Biathlon World Cup relay of the season at Anterselva, Italy . . . Felix Gottwald of Austria outsprinted Germany’s Ronny Ackerman to win the Nordic Combined World Cup by 0.8 seconds at Helsinki.

Golf

Thomas Bjorn eagled the 17th hole for a share of the third-round lead with defending champion Ernie Els, who shot a 67 in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City, South Africa.

They are both at 16-under-par 200, two shots better than Lee Westwood and Nick Price in the chase for the $2-million first-place check--the largest prize in golf history.

John Huston of the U.S. shot a course-record 64 to move into fifth place at 203. Colin Montgomerie also had a 64, but is seven strokes behind the leaders.

Sisters Annika and Charlotta Sorenstam of Sweden shot an eight-under 64 to increase their lead to three strokes at the Women’s World Cup of Golf at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Sorenstams made eight birdies in the second round to drop to 13-under 131 in the $1-million tournament. Australians Karrie Webb and Rachel Hetherington shot a 66 and were in second place at 134.

The U.S. team of Juli Inkster and Meg Mallon also had a 66, moving from ninth place to a share of fourth at 139.

Tom Kite shot a five-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead over Hale Irwin after the first round of the $600,000 Senior Slam at Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas.

Miscellany

UC San Diego (21-2-0) won the NCAA Division II women’s soccer title, defeating Northern Kentucky, 2-1, at Miami Shores, Fla.

France’s sports minister, Marie-George Buffet, said she can’t comply with a request from cycling’s governing body to destroy Tour de France riders’ frozen urine samples because judicial authorities want them for an investigation of Lance Armstrong’s team, U.S Postal.

Armstrong’s agent, Bill Stapleton, said the cyclist was thrilled with the decision because the urine could now be tested and help prove Armstrong competed drug-free.

Olympic swimmers Megan Quann and Ed Moses completed sweeps of the breaststroke events in the U.S. Open at Auburn, Ala.

Quann won the 200 meters in 2 minutes, 26.16 seconds, and Moses took the men’s 200 in 2:11.22.

Columbine High won its second consecutive Class 5A Colorado state championship by defeating Bear Creek, 41-7, at Denver.

The Rebels (12-2) won their first state title last year in a game that attracted national attention because of the Columbine shootings seven months earlier.

Olympian show jumper John Whitaker, 45, of England was in stable condition after a stroke he suffered Friday, a spokeswoman for a Swedish hospital said.