Walchhofer Wins Downhill

Austria’s Michael Walchhofer upstaged his favored teammates by winning the downhill at the Alpine Skiing World Championships at St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Saturday for his first career victory.

The 27-year-old Walchhofer covered the 2,989-meter Corviglia course in 1 minute 43.54 seconds, well ahead of teammates Stephan Eberharter and Hermann Maier.

Jake Fiala led the United States with a 12th-place finish. Daron Rahlves lost balance just before the finish and missed the last gate skiing only on his right ski. Although he was provisionally in 16th place, Rahlves will be disqualified, allowing Bode Miller to move into that spot, 2.24 seconds behind the winner.

Maier, a two-time Olympic champion and three-time World Cup overall winner who is three weeks into his comeback from a serious motorcycle accident, was eighth. Eberharter, the super-giant slalom winner who has five downhill victories this season and leads the overall World Cup standings, finished fifth.

Walchhofer had placed second in four World Cup downhill races this season, and his only win was in a combined, the total results of a downhill and two slalom runs.

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Speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno was disqualified for the second straight day, helping Canada sweep a World Cup short track 500-meter race at Kearns, Utah.

Jeff Scholten won the 500 in 41.977 seconds in his first World Cup race of the season.

Teammate Jean-Francois Monette (42.220) was second and Francois-Louis Tremblay (42.408) was awarded third after Ohno was disqualified for impeding him.

Ohno, disqualified Friday night in a 1,500-meter semifinal race, got in the Canadian’s path when the ice gave a bit while he was trying to pass.

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American Jennifer Rodriguez won the 500-meter race and was third overall in the women’s standings, and Derek Parra was 10th in the men’s standings at the World All-Around speed skating championships at Goteborg, Sweden.

Rodriguez won the women’s sprint in 40.01 seconds, 0.15 seconds ahead of overall leader Cindy Klassen of Canada.

Parra finished fourth in the 500 and 16th in the 5,000. Dutchman Ids Postma, the winner in the 500 and fourth in the 5,000, is the men’s overall leader.

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Americans Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin won the luge World Cup doubles title by finishing tied for first in the final race of the season at Winterberg, Germany. The pair used a strong second run of 44.947 seconds to catch Olympic champions Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch of Germany. The teams finished in the identical time of 1 minute 29.799 seconds.... Germany’s Sven Hannawald won his 18th World Cup ski jumping title and moved into first place in the overall standings. Hannawald had jumps of 142 and 147 meters for a total of 328.2 at Willingen, Germany.... Andre Lange of Germany clinched the Bobsled World Cup four-man overall title with a combined time of 1:47.77 at Calgary, Canada. Todd Hayes of the United States was second in 1:48.31.

Miscellany

The Florida Marlins beat Vladimir Nunez in the second arbitration case of the year, and the right-hander will make $1.4 million this season instead of the $1.75 million he was seeking.

Nunez, who made $350,000 last season, was 6-5 with 20 saves and a 3.41 earned-run average.

Olympic super-heavyweight champion Audley Harrison of Britain stopped American Rob Calloway after four rounds at Brentford, England, to move his record to 9-0.