Nicole Hosp

ARE, Sweden, Feb. 14--Austria’s Nicole Hosp ended Anja Paerson’s golden run at the world Alpine skiing championships, mastering a treacherous course to win the giant slalom title on Tuesday after the local favorite crashed out.
Hosp clocked a combined time of two minutes 31.72 seconds to win her first major title and present Austria with their first gold of the two-week festival, Reuters said.
Maria Pietilae-Holmner made sure Sweden still had something to celebrate with the silver medal, 0.85 seconds back, and Italian Denise Karbon took the bronze in 2:32.69.
Swede Paerson, who had won gold in the first three women’s events here, was in seventh position after an error-ridden first run.
Taking risks to try to make up time in the second, she lost her balance on a turn and slid down the piste on her stomach, in brutal contrast to her overwhelming dominance so far.
“Of course I was taking risks because I want to win every race I enter but I don’t think that’s why I crashed,“ Paerson told reporters. “It was a technical mistake. That can always happen.“
Olympic champion Julia Mancuso had hoped to hand the United States their first gold of the Are championships but she had to be content with fifth place after a ragged second run.
“It wasn’t what I expected,“ said Mancuso, silver-medalist in the super-combined. “It was a lot rougher and bumpy at the beginning.“
The 23-year-old Hosp, who had won bronze in the downhill here on Sunday, was in joint fourth position after the first run but produced a flawless second leg to win in style.
Not only did all rounder Hosp end a frustrating wait for ski-mad Austria, the dominant force in Alpine skiing for years, she also became the first winner of a women’s world championship race other than Paerson or Janica Kostelic since Canada’s Melanie Turgeon won the downhill in 2003.
Paerson and Croatia’s Kostelic, currently taking a break from the sport, had won the last 11 world championship individual events between them.
The happiest Swede in the finish area was not Paerson for a change but the previously unheralded Pietilae-Holmner, who made sure the hosts remained top of the medals table with her unexpected silver.

PACIFIC PALISADES, USA, Feb. 14-- This week’s Nissan Open has the look and feel of a major championship, despite the notable absence of world number one Tiger Woods.
Eight of the game’s top nine players, and 20 of the leading 25, head a strong field at Riviera Country Club, a par-71 venue which has hosted one US Open and two PGA Championships, Reuters said.
Although Woods has decided not to play, golf fans will be eager to see if fourth-ranked Phil Mickelson can build on the superb form that took him to a commanding five-shot victory at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Sunday.
The Masters champion, who says he has never driven the ball better, hit 82 percent of his fairways last week en route to his 30th PGA Tour title.
Mickelson’s return to his best sounded a warning to his rivals for this year’s majors, and he made a late decision to play at the Nissan Open to test his driving on a tight, tree-lined layout.
“I have never driven it as well as I’m driving right now and I’m really excited about playing Riviera,“ the American left-hander told reporters.
“I’m excited about playing tight golf courses and I feel I can get the ball in play easy.
“In the past, I would miss a lot of fairways here,“ added the Californian, who makes his ninth appearance at Riviera this week but first since 2001.
“If you put it in play there, I think it’s a course you can really attack. I want to try and get into contention a couple more times (before the Masters in April) because I wasn’t in contention the first three weeks.“
Mickelson failed to finish inside the top 40 in his first three PGA Tour starts of the year, including a missed cut at the Phoenix Open two weeks ago.
Although he will start Thursday’s opening round as a firm favorite in the eyes of many, players such as Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Adam Scott will be worth monitoring.
Three-times major champion Els, in 1999, and Scott, in 2005, are former winners at Riviera and Goosen clinched the European Tour’s Qatar Masters two weeks ago in his last start.

Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar (l) and Virender Sehwag (r) celebrate the wicket of Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara during the third One Day International (ODI) match between India and Sri Lanka in Margao, India.

GOA, India, Feb. 14--Zaheer Khan grabbed a career-best 5-42 as India kept Sri Lanka down to 230-8 in the crucial third one-day international here on Wednesday.
The left-arm seamer reduced Sri Lanka to 6-3 in the fifth over before the tourists, electing to take first strike, fought back through the lower order to post a challenging total, AFP reported.
Russel Arnold (66 not out) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (42) put on 89 for the sixth wicket after half the side was back in the pavilion for 91 by the 24th over.
India need a win to level the four-match series 1-1 after Sri Lanka won the second game in Rajkot by five runs. The first match in Kolkata was abandoned due to rain.
The series is the last for both teams before they head to the Caribbean for the World Cup starting on March 13.
Zaheer grabbed the first three wickets in eight balls as he surpassed his previous best of 4-19 against Bangladesh in Dhaka.
Former captain Sourav Ganguly led India’s inspired display in the field with a brilliant catch to dismiss veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya.
Ganguly, 34, ran swiftly from mid-wicket to square leg and then dived full length to hold a skier one-handed after Jayasuriya fended at a rising ball from Zaheer.
Zaheer trapped Upul Tharanga leg-before three balls later and clean-bowled Kumar Sangakkara, a century-maker in the previous game, for no score in his next over.
Skipper Mahela Jayawardene and his predecessor Marvan Atapattu put on 76 for the fourth wicket before both fell in successive overs to make Sri Lanka 91-5.
Atapattu was held low at square-leg by Sachin Tendulkar after making 42 and Jayawardene fell leg-before to Harbhajan Singh for.
Dilshan and Arnold rebuilt again in the middle overs before Harbhajan had Dilshan caught at the wicket in the 42nd over to grab his second wicket.

LONDON, Feb. 14--Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer saved two penalties as Middlesbrough won a shoot-out 5-4 against Bristol City at the Riverside on Tuesday to book an FA Cup fifth round tie at home to West Brom this weekend.
Spot kicks were required after the fourth round replay had finished 2-2 after extra-time, AFP said.
Earlier, Schwarzer’s fellow Socceroo, Mark Viduka came off the bench to make it 1-1 after City forward David Noble put the visitors in sight of an upset.
“We were a little sluggish but Bristol City played very well,“ a relieved Schwarzer told Sky Sports.
In the day’s other fourth round replay teenage striker Chris Martin came off the bench to score the extra-time winner in norwich’s 3-2 win against Blackpool which will see the Championship side away to Premiership champions Chelsea this weekend.
At the Riverside, Boro striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni had an extra-time penalty saved and then hit the post in the shoot-out after the Premiership side and City, who play in League One, English football’s third tier, shared four goals just as they’d done in their original fourth round tie at Ashton Gate.
Schwarzer gave Boro an edge when he saved the first kick of the shoot-out from Phil Jevons.
Viduka then made no mistake with his spot-kick but City, after Jevons’s miss, were also finding the back of the net during the shoot-out and the score was tied at 4-4 when Yakubu stepped up.
By that stage City keeper Chris Weale had already out-thought the Nigeria striker when he stayed put in the centre of his goal, rather than dive early, to save from Yakubu, who often strikes penalties down the middle. But this one had no power and Weale saved comfortably in the end.
In the shoot-out, Weale didn’t have to do anything as Yakubu clipped the right post. But the next penalty saw Schwarzer save from Craig Woodman and, with the tie now into sudden death, Boro youngster Adam Johnson sealed victory.
Bristol, who had been 2-0 down in the first tie, went ahead in the 23rd minute when Andrew Taylor played Noble onside from Alex Russell’s through ball and he slid a shot under Schwarzer. There were only 21 minutes left when Boro drew level when Viduka, on at half-time, headed in England winger Stewart Downing’s cross from close range.
In the 95th minute Jamie McCombe brought down Yakubu but he never looked comfortable taking the penalty and Weale saved.

LEVERKUSEN, Germany, Feb. 14--Blackburn boss Mark Hughes challenged South African striker Benni McCarthy to provide the inspiration when the Premiership outfit face Bayer Leverkusen in their UEFA Cup last 32 clash on Wednesday.
Rovers play the first-leg of the tie at the BayArena aiming to keep the tie alive ahead of next Thursday’s return at Ewood Park, AFP said.
But with Euro veteran McCarthy having already won the Champions League and UEFA Cup with FC Porto, Hughes admits that the 29-year-old--the club’s leading scorer with 15 goals this season--will be a key figure for the English team against the Bundesliga side.
Hughes said: “On nights like this one, you look to players like Benni to grab the occasion by the scruff of the neck and really make an impact.
“Benni has done that for many seasons now and he knows European football better than he knows the Premiership. He has got great European experience and has had a real impact for us right from the start, on and off the field.
“Reputations go before you and Benni’s certainly does because he has had fantastic success as a player. But he has a real desire to succeed with Blackburn as well and that’s the big thing for us.
“We cannot allow ourselves to put all our eggs in Benni’s basket, though, and we have to show that we have other strings to our bow.
“We haven’t had really had that many problems in the competition up to this point, however, and we’re very much in the mix we feel.
“European games are something we have looked forward to and we really want to progress.“

Andy Murray

SAN JOSE, USA, Feb. 14--Third-seeded Andy Murray, who won his first career ATP Tour title last season in the SAP Open, began his defense of the crown on winning note Tuesday.
Murray dominated American Kevin Kim 6-3, 6-1, in the first round of the $416,000 hardcourt event, AFP said.
The 19-year-old Scotsman reached the Doha final last month, but has not played since losing to Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the Australian Open nearly three weeks ago. A sore foot forced Murray to miss the Zagreb Indoors event.
Murray, who rose to 13th in the world rankings last week, will next face Kristian Pless of Denmark. Last year, Murray beat Andy Roddick in the semi-finals and Lleyton Hewitt in the final.
Fourth-seeded Marat Safin, who helped Russia beat Chile, 3-2 in a first-round Davis Cup tie this past weekend, advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) victory over American Scott Oudsema on Tuesday.
After helping the United States advance to the Davis Cup quarter-finals, Roddick will begin his quest for a third crown at the SAP Open on Wednesday.
Roddick won back-to-back titles here in 2004 and 2005 before losing in the semifinals last year to Murray.
The top-seeded Roddick will face Frank Dancevic of Canada in a first-round match.
Roddick led the US to a 4-1 victory over the Czech Republic in a first-round Davis Cup tie this past weekend, winning both of his singles matches against Tomas Berdych and Ivo Minar.
James Blake, who is the second seed here, lost the lone singles match for the US, falling to Berdych on Friday.
Blake will meet Igor Kunitsyn of Russia in a first-round match.
In afternoon matches Tuesday, eighth-seeded American Vincen Spadea breezed by Danai Udomchoke to Thailand, 6-3, 6-4 and unseeded Bjorn Phau of Germany stopped Konstantinos Economidis of Greece, 6-2, 6-3.

MIAMI, USA, Feb. 14--Vincent Lecavalier maintained his great run of form with a pair of goals and an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning won for the 13th time in 16 games, downing the Phoenix Coyotes 5-3 in Florida on Tuesday.
The Lighting’s streak has coincided with Lecavalier’s scoring rampage, with the center registering goals in 14 of his last 18 games to give him a career-high 37 on the season as Tampa Bay battles for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, Reuters reported.
“It feels good,“ Lecavalier told reporters.
“Every year I tell myself I want to do a little better production wise.“
Lecavalier is already two goals better than his previous season best set last year and the Lightning have needed him to be on song as they are in an intense battle for playoff positioning.
Tampa Bay sits sixth in the Eastern Conference overall standings after the latest win, but there are just seven points separating the third through 10th seeds in the standings.
They were made to work hard against the lowly Coyotes, squandering an early 2-0 lead they built on goals by Lecavalier and Martin St Louis as the Coyotes battled back to tie the game twice, at 2-2 in the first period and 3-3 in the second.
Mike Zigomanis and Oleg Saprykin scored for Phoenix in the first before Lacavlier restored Tampa’s lead late in the period. Derek Morris tied the game for the Coyotes with the only goal of the second period before Brad Richards’ powerplay marker at 1:24 of the third period put the Lightning ahead for good.
Eric Perrin added an insurance goal in the third and Johan Holmqvist made 23 saves in goal.
Mikael Tellqvist stopped 22 shots for Phoenix, which has lost six consecutive times to the Lightning dating back to February 13, 2001.
Ed Belfour recorded his first shutout in nearly three years, making 29 saves as the Florida panthers edged the slumping Montreal Canadiens 1-0.
Tim Thomas made 32 saves for his second shutout of the season as the Boston Bruins blanked the Edmonton Oilers 3-0. The New York Islanders snapped an 11-game winless streak in Toronto (0-11-1) with a 3-2 shootout win over the Maple Leafs.
Cam Ward made 21 saves as the Carolina Hurricanes managed to edge the lowly Los Angeles Kings 2-1.