Miller, Rahlves Make History in Downhill

Bode Miller became the first American to win the men’s downhill at a world championships Saturday, and teammate Daron Rahlves was runner-up in this signature event for an overpowering show by the U.S. team at Bormio, Italy.

Miller, winner of last weekend’s super giant slalom, confirmed his status as the top all-around skier. The overall World Cup leader was the third skier down the slope, and no one finished within a second of his time of 1 minute 56.22 seconds until Rahlves, who started 18 spots later.

They gave the United States its first 1-2 finish at the worlds in any event in men’s or women’s competition.

“To be one and two at the world championships for any team is great, but for the U.S. it’s phenomenal,” Miller said.

Rahlves was 0.44 of a second behind. Austria’s Michael Walchhofer, the previous world champion, won the bronze, 0.87 back.

Although Bill Johnson won the Olympic downhill in 1984 and Tommy Moe repeated the feat 10 years later at the Lillehammer Games, no American man had won the gold in the glamour race at the worlds.

Miller ended a strong run by Austria, which had won every downhill at the worlds, dating to Hermann Maier’s victory in 1999 in Vail, Colo. The worlds are not held during Winter Olympic years.

Strategy played a large part in Miller’s victory. By deliberately posting a slow time in Friday’s final training, which determined the race’s starting order, Miller started early and could attack a clean course while later skiers faced varying conditions.

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Jeremy Bloom won his third consecutive World Cup moguls event to lead a strong showing by the U.S. team at Inawashiro, Japan.

Four Americans finished in the top six. Travis Cabral was fourth, Dave Babic placed fifth and Toby Dawson was sixth.

Bloom, the reigning world champion in freestyle moguls and a 2002 Olympian, edged Dale Begg-Smith of Australia by .89 of a point.

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Americans Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick topped the men’s overall standings after two races at the World Allround Speedskating Championships at Moscow.

Davis led the field with 74.969 points, with Hedrick 0.13 points behind. Sven Kramer of the Netherlands was in third with 75.917.

Anni Friesinger of Germany dominated the 500- and 3,000-meter races for an overall lead in the women’s field.

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Tennis

Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova defeated Lindsay Davenport in a third-set tiebreaker to win the $1.3-million Pan Pacific Open at Tokyo, preventing Davenport from becoming the first person to win the tournament five times. Sharapova captured her first Pan Pacific title with a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) win.

Conchita Martinez reached the Volvo Open final at Pattaya, Thailand, when Evgenia Linetskaya quit during the second set because of heat exhaustion. Martinez will play Anna Lena Groenefeld for the title today.

Xavier Malisse battled to a 7-5, 6-4 victory over top-seeded Vince Spadea in the semifinals at the Millennium Tennis Championships at Delray Beach, Fla. He will play Jiri Novak in today’s final.

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Auto Racing

A Daytona Prototype entry driven by endurance aces Max Angelelli, Wayne Taylor and Emanuel Collard held a narrow lead halfway through the Rolex 24 sports car race at Daytona Beach, Fla.

In one of the closest races in the 43 years that the twice-around-the-clock event has been run at Daytona International Speedway, four cars were on the same lap at the halfway point, with two more only a lap behind.

The top four cars were separated by less than 20 seconds, an unusually close margin so late into an endurance race.

The Pontiac Crawford driven by NASCAR’s Tony Stewart, three-time Daytona winner Andy Wallace and two-time winner Jan Lammers led several times and was just about 7 seconds behind the leading Pontiac Riley after 12 hours.

NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson combined with former winners Butch Leitzinger and Elliott Forbes-Robinson in a Pontiac Crawford to hold the third spot halfway through the 24-hour race. The last car on the lead lap was the Lexus Riley shared by IRL stars Scott Dixon and Darren Manning and Casey Mears, another of the nine NASCAR regulars in the lineup.

Damion Gardner took the lead on the 11th lap when he passed Bill Rose and won the USAC/CRA non-winged sprint car series 30-lap feature in the season-opening event at Perris Auto Speedway.

It was the ninth CRA Series victory for Gardner, who was the fastest qualifier. Series champion Rip Williams, seeking his 100th victory, finished second. Mike Kirby was third, and Rose fourth.

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Football

USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow declined to say Saturday whether he had received an offer to take a similar position with the Tennessee Titans.

Chow interviewed with Titan Coach Jeff Fisher and toured the team facility in Nashville on Friday.

“It’s just a process we’re going through,” he said. “We’ll know more in the next three or four days.”

The New Orleans Saints promoted Mike Sheppard from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. Sheppard replaces Mike Nolan, who was hired as coach of the San Francisco 49ers. The team also hired former NFL quarterback Turk Schonert as quarterbacks coach.

John Dutton threw a franchise-record eight touchdown passes and the Colorado Crush (1-1) set a franchise mark for scoring in a 72-56 victory over the Grand Rapids Rampage (0-2) in an Arena Football League game at Grand Rapids, Mich. Rampage quarterback Michael Bishop became the first player to run for 100 yards in an AFL game.... Mark Grieb threw six touchdown passes to lead the ArenaBowl champion San Jose SaberCats (1-1) to a 66-31 victory over Las Vegas (1-1) at San Jose.

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Boxing

Zab Judah claimed the undisputed welterweight title, beating Cory Spinks (34-3, 11 knockouts) in St. Louis with a ninth-round technical knockout. All three judges had Judah (33-2, 24 KOs) comfortably ahead when the bout was stopped.

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Soccer

German teams appealed the outcome of 13 games they believe were fixed in a soccer scandal that has hit the country 16 months before it plays host to the World Cup. The appeals exceed the 10 games prosecutors have identified as suspicious. Twenty-five people, including 14 players and four referees, are suspected.