Miller Falls Short in Giant Slalom

Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., tied for sixth place in the final World Cup giant slalom of the season Saturday and finished second to Michael von Gruenigen of Switzerland in the discipline’s final standings.

Miller trailed Von Gruenigen by 97 points before the race in Hafjell, Norway, and needed a victory to have any chance of winning the title.

Miller, 17th after the first run, shared sixth place with Kalle Palander of Finland, .90 of a second behind winner Hans Knauss of Austria, who had a two-run time of 2 minutes 20.83 seconds on the Olympia course used in the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

Benjamin Raich of Austria, the 2001 World Cup slalom champion, finished second, .54 behind. Von Gruenigen, .62 off the winning pace, won his second giant slalom title with a third-place finish.

The 33-year-old Von Gruenigen, skiing the last giant slalom of his 15-year career, topped the standings with 542 points. Miller had 425 points and Knauss was third with 365.

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Kristina Koznick of Burnsville, Minn., skied a sizzling second run to win the final women’s World Cup slalom of the season for her first victory of the year.

Koznick had a combined two-run total of 1 minute 45.67 seconds down the Olympia course near Lillehammer.

Laure Pequegnot of France finished second, 0.08 behind. Marlies Schild of Austria, who finished third, 0.23 back.

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Adam Malysz of Poland won his fifth World Cup ski jump event of the season, and in so doing, set a large hill record at Lahti, Finland. The two-time defending World Cup champion jumped 132 meters and amassed 289.6 points.

Matti Hautamaki of Finland had set the hill record with a jump of 131 meters minutes before Malysz jumped.

Track and Field

Record-holder Stacy Dragila failed to clear a qualifying height in the pole vault at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England.

Dragila, the Olympic and world outdoor champion, missed three attempts at 14 feet 1 1/4 inches -- more than 1 1/2 feet lower than the world record she set this month at the U.S. national championships.

In other events, Michelle Collins ran 22.18, the third-fastest time ever, to win the women’s 200 meters, and world-record holder Ashia Hansen of Britain won the women’s triple jump at 49-3, equaling the third best mark in history.

Carl Myerscough of Nebraska barely missed the collegiate shotput record with a throw of 70 feet 6 1/4 inches, winning the event for the second year in a row at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.

Myerscough’s throw was a meet record and the second-longest in the world this year. The 6-foot-10, 340-pound junior was a quarter-inch shy of Terry Albritton’s collegiate record of 70-6 1/2, set 26 years ago.

Jerrick Holmes of Cal State Northridge cleared 7-3 3/4to win the men’s high jump. Holmes, a sophomore from Palmdale, set a school record and became Northridge’s first men’s champion since the program went Division I in 1991.

Former UCLA coach Bob Larsen has been named an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic team at the 2004 Games in Athens. He will coach the men’s distance runners under head Coach George Williams.

Soccer

Defending champion Arsenal’s 20-game unbeaten streak in the English Premier League ended with a 2-0 loss to Blackburn, and Manchester United beat Aston Villa, 1-0, closing the gap at the top of the standings.

Arsenal (19-5-6) has 63 points, two more than Manchester United (18-5-7).

Eleven Cruz Azul players, including Uruguayans Sebastian Abreu and Daniel Baldi, Chilean Pablo Galdames and Brazilian Julio Cesar Pinheiro, quit the Mexican league team after the club’s owner demanded they sign new contracts.

Miscellany

The NASCAR Busch Series stock car race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina was postponed until Monday because of rain.

Donnie Davis passed for 214 yards and two touchdowns as the Georgia Force (5-2) beat the Carolina Cobras (0-7), 45-37, in an Arena Football League game at Duluth, Ga.

Passings

Al Gionfriddo, the Brooklyn Dodger outfielder who robbed Joe DiMaggio of a home run in Game 6 of the 1947 World Series, died Friday. See Section B.