U.S. bobsledder Rohbock captures first victory of season

KOENIGSSEE, Germany (AP) -- Shauna Rohbock of the United States captured her first World Cup win of the season in the two-man bobsled to take second place in the overall standings, while in the men's event Thomas Florschuetz of Germany won his second straight.

Rohbock and Valerie Fleming finished first on the first run in 50.78 seconds and were second-quickest on the second run in 51.13 to grab first place with a total time of 1 minute 41.91 seconds.

Olympic champion Sandra Kiriasis and Romy Logsch of Germany and Nicola Minichiello and Gilian Cooke of Great Britain tied for second place 0.14 seconds behind.

Kiriasis's second place was enough to take the lead in the overall World Cup standings with 845 points followed by Rohbock on 803.

The previous overall leader Helen Upperton of Canada dropped to third place on 794 points after finishing ninth in Koenigssee.

In the men's two-man bobsled, Florschuetz of Germany won his second consecutive World Cup event.

Florschuetz and Marc Kuehne finished second in both runs with times of 49.56 and 49.65 seconds for a total time of 1 minute 39.21 seconds.

The Swiss bobsled of Ivo Rueegg and Cédric Grand finished second, 0.06 behind despite registering the best run of the day on the first run of 49.54 seconds before clocking 49.73 in the second run.

Speedskater Kramer adds win in 1,500

HEERENVEEN, Netherlands (AP) -- Sven Kramer took a major step toward claiming his third successive European allround title Saturday with a win in the men's 1,500-meter race.

Kramer finished in 1 minute 46.53 seconds to edge Russia's Yevgeny Lalenkov by 0.09 seconds at the European Speedskating Championships. Enrico Fabris of Italy was third.

"It was a great race. I obviously intended to go faster so as to show all my capabilities," Kramer said.

Saturday's win came a day after Kramer edged closest rival Havard Bokko of Norway to win the 5,000.

Wouter Olde Heuvel, also of the Netherlands, finished fourth to sit second in the overall standings, after finishing third Friday in the 5,000.

Lalenkov won the men's 500 Friday, beating Poland's Konrad Niedzwiedzki and Robert Lehmann of Germany.

In the women's events, Germany's Claudia Pechstein won the 3,000 in 4:04.41 to take the lead in the overall standings. Pechstein also finished second in the 500 behind Russia's Alla Shabanova.

Defending champion Ireen Wust of the Netherlands fell out of contention for the title after finishing sixth and seventh in the 500 and 3,000.

The event finishes Sunday with the women's 1,500 race, followed by the men's 10,000 and women's 5,000.

Kircheisen wins Nordic combined race

VAL DI FIEMME, Italy (AP) -- Bjoern Kircheisen of Germany registered his second Nordic combined World Cup victory of the season Saturday.

Kircheisen finished with 258.5 points to edge Bernhard Gruber of Austria, who ended with 258.0. Jan Schmid of Norway was third with 254.7.

Kircheisen finished second in the 10-kilometer mass start cross country race and was 11th and second in the two jumps.

Bill Demong of the United States was fourth with 252.2 points after placing fourth in cross country and 12th and seventh in jumping.

The mass start reverses the standard routine, with the cross country portion taking place before the jumping. The format heavily favors the jumpers.

"I was pretty satisfied with fourth, all things considered," said Demong, whose strong suit is cross country. "It's a little frustrating when it favors the jumpers."

Kircheisen's victory moved him past Demong into second place in the overall standings.

Anssi Koivuranta of Finland still leads with 643 points despite injuring his stomach in a fall and having to withdraw a quarter of the way through the cross country race. Kircheisen has 509 points and Demong has 497.

Italy sweeps top 2 spots in luge doubles

CESANA PARIOL, Italy (AP) -- Italy won its fourth doubles race in five luge World Cup events this season Saturday with the duos of Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber and Gerhard Plankensteiner-Oswald Haselrieder sweeping the top two spots.

Oberstolz and Gruber clocked a two-tun combined time of 1 minute, 33.687 seconds on the track used for the 2006 Turin Olympics.

It was the second victory of the season for Oberstolz and Gruber and the 12th overall.

Plankensteiner and Haselrieder finished a hair-thin 0.017 behind and Latvian brothers Andris and Juris Sics were third, 0.167 back.

Tatjana Huefner of Germany took the women's race in 1:34.699 for her fourth win in five races this season.

Another German, Natalie Geisenberger, was second, 0.058 behind, and Nina Reithmayer of Austria finished third, 0.268 back.

Armin Zoeggeler will be looking to extend his perfect record on the Cesana track in the men's singles race Sunday.

Schlierenzauer wins World Cup ski jumping meet

BAD MITTERNDORF, Austria (AP) -- Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria set a hill record on Saturday in winning his third World Cup ski jumping event this season and 14th overall.

After a 199.5-meter effort in the opening round, Schlierenzauer flew 215.5 meters in the second, beating by 1.5 meters the 6-year-old mark set by Germany's Sven Hannawald.

World Cup leader Simon Ammann of Switzerland led after the opening round and finished second. Martin Koch of Austria was third.

Defending World Cup champion Thomas Morgenstern was sixth, while fellow Austrian Wolfgang Loitzl, who won the last three events to take the Four Hills tournament title, finished seventh.

Ammann has 957 points in the overall standings, 117 more than Schlierenzauer. Loitzl is third with 775.

Another ski jumping meet in Bad Mitterndorf is scheduled for Sunday.

Tchoudov of Russia wins men's 10-km sprint

OBERHOF, Germany (AP) -- Maxim Tchoudov of Russia won his second biathlon World Cup race of the season by taking Saturday's men's 10-kilometer sprint.

Tchoudov, who also won the individual event in Hochfilzen, connected on all 10 shots and finished the Oberhof course in 25 minutes, 49.5 seconds. The victory was Tchoudov's fourth World Cup win of his career and second sprint title.

Michael Roesch of Germany was also perfect in shooting to take second place, 12.7 seconds behind Tchoudov. It was Roesch's first podium finish of the season.

Poland's Tomasz Sikora was third, 25.2 seconds adrift after one penalty lap.

The result allowed Sikora to take over first place in the overall World Cup standings with 337 points. Previous leader Emil Hegle Svendsen dropped to second with 315 points after finishing 25th on Saturday.

Germany's Michael Greis is third overall with 281 points.

De Le Rue, Frei win World Cup snowboardcrosses

BAD GASTEIN, Austria (AP) -- Xavier De Le Rue of France and Sandra Frei of Switzerland won World Cup snowboardcrosses on Saturday.

De Le Rue earned his 11th career title, his first win since Nov. 2005.

He defeated Michal Novotny of the Czech Republic, Nate Holland of the United States and Konstantin Schad of Germany in the final.

Stian Sivertzen of Norway, who finished 10th, held the lead in the discipline standings with 1460 points. Seth Wescott of the United States is 10 points behind, while Markus Schairer of Austria is third with 1360.

Siegfried Grabner of Austria still leads the overall standings.

Frei won her second title of the season and fourth overall.

Deborah Anthonioz of France, Lindsey Jacobellis of the United States and Maelle Ricker of Canada also reached the final and placed second, third, and fourth, respectively.

Frei leads the discipline standings with 2,290 points, followed by Jacobellis with 1,890 and Helene Olafsen of Norway with 1,610.

Doris Guenther of Austria lost in the qualification round earlier Saturday but stayed atop the overall standings.

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