Karin Huttary added to her collection of Winter X medals on Sunday, fighting through a slow course and holding off Norway's Gro Kvinlog to win her second skier X gold.
"It was so much fun, much more fun skiing with riders beside you," Huttary said of switching sports. "And with all the jumps, I love jumps. That was a big decision and I'm happy that I made it. It's cool to be here."
Lars Lewen won the men's race, holding off Idaho's Reggie Crist to win his second Winter X gold.
The 30-year-old Swede won the 2003 race, but had a much harder time of it this. Heavy snow led to several crashes in the practice runs and racers had to adjust their tactics in the finals, taking jumps one at a time instead of flying over two or more.
"It was a more difficult test than when I won in 2003," Lewen said. "It was very, very slow. In the training, we had no chance. It was not much fun. But it got better and better and at the end it was not so bad. We had a good race."
Baseball
All-Star catcher Mike Piazza agreed yesterday to a $2 million, one-year contract with the San Diego Padres, giving the defending NL West champions a marquee player they think can still contribute. Piazza, 37, had been interested in signing a free-agent deal with an AL team to become a designated hitter. Instead, he'll stay in the NL and return to the West Coast for the first time since the Los Angeles Dodgers traded him to Florida in 1998. bobsledding
Alexander Subkov guided a four-man Russian bobsled to victory yesterday to win the World Cup season title ahead of Canada's Pierre Lueders. Subkov and teammates Sergei Golubev, Alexei Seliverstov and Alexei Vojevoda finished in 1 minute 48.04 seconds with runs of 53.91 seconds and 54.13. Matthias Hoepfner in Germany I was second with a total 1:48.19, followed by Yevgeni Popov in Russia II at 1:48.54. luge
Jan Eichhorn won his first career race yesterday in men's singles to lead a German sweep of all three events at the final luge World Cup competition before the Olympics. Tony Benshoof of the United States was fourth in 1 minute, 28.274 seconds. skiing
Hannu Manninen of Finland clinched the overall World Cup title in Nordic combined after winning yesterday's competition. Manninen won after the 15-kilometer cross country race in 37 minutes, 40.3 seconds, beating Todd Lodwick of the United States and Christoph Bieler of Austria. Lodwick finished 10.2 seconds behind Manninen, the favorite heading into next month's Turin Olympics.
Nicole Hosp of Austria skied a flawless second run to win a World Cup giant slalom yesterday. American Julia Mancuso was fifth after runner-up finishes in Friday's super-G and Saturday's downhill.
Christoph Gruber of Austria enjoyed two victories, winning a men's World Cup super-G and locking up an Olympic berth. Shrugging off a scary crash in Saturday's downhill, Gruber smacked into several gates but held on for his fourth career win, 0.82 seconds ahead than American Scott Macartney. Ski jump
Matti Hautamaki won the ski jump at a World Cup event yesterday, capturing his second victory of the weekend. Hautamaki jumped 133.0 and 132.0 meters to win his 19th World Cup with 277.5 points, three more than fellow Finn Janne Ahonen. Austrian Thomas Morgenstern was third with 268.9 points, narrowly preventing a Finland sweep. Soccer
Taylor Twellman scored three goals to lead the U.S. national team to a 5-0 rout of Norway yesterday in an international friendly match. The Americans, tuning up for the World Cup in Germany, used mostly domestic-based players in the victory. Foreign-based U.S. players will join the squad later.
