Kearney wins 15th straight World Cup moguls event

BEIDA LAKE, China (AP) -- American Hannah Kearney won her 15th straight World Cup moguls event Sunday, breaking downhill great Ingemar Stenmark's all-discipline record for consecutive FIS World Cup victories.

"It's insane. I had no idea about the record," Kearney said. "It's great to have this record as a freestyle skier. Alpine has a lot more races, thus more opportunities to start a streak.

"That is the biggest honor that can possibly receive considering all the amazing athletes that have crossed through the FIS World Cup circuit throughout the years."

Kearney, from Norwich, Vt., won after stumbling on top and barely making the four-skier super finals.

"I had to fight today," Kearney said. "The course wasn't really suited for my type of skiing (small bumps and shallow pitch), so I worked on it all week. I qualified first for finals, but in the first round of finals made a mistake on the second mogul. Luckily, with all my competitive experience, I knew that it was never over till it's over. I pulled it together and skied a really clean run from there down.

"I made the super finals in fourth place and had to really ski for my life. I skied aggressively and went really big off the bottom air and was rewarded with the victory."

Stenmark won 14 straight giant slaloms in 1978-80.

Kearney's streak began in Lake Placid, N.Y., on Jan. 22, 2011.

"She usually skis best when she has a challenge or task to improve on," U.S. moguls coach Garth Hager said. "It makes her hungry to perform. The result of that was a really clean run in the round of four."

Germany's Huefner claims 4th luge world title

ALTENBERG, Germany (AP) -- Olympic champion Tatjana Huefner of Germany won the luge title for the fourth time at the world championships Sunday while Germany took the gold in the team relay. The U.S. women were sixth in the relay.

Tatiana Ivanova set a track record with her first run, but Huefner overtook the Russian with the fastest second run for a combined time of 1 minute 44.482 seconds. Ivanova was the silver medalist despite a broken finger, 0.101 seconds back. Olympic bronze medalist Natalie Geisenberger of Germany was third, 0.403 seconds behind.

Huefner equaled the records of four-time world champions Margit Schumann of East Germany and compatriot Sylke Otto.

Germany's Felix Loch, also the Olympic champion, had already claimed the men's title for the third time on Saturday

The hosts capped a perfect weekend later Sunday, when Loch and Huefner combined with the doubles team of Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken to capture the team event in 2 minutes 22.003 seconds. The Russians were second by 0.089 seconds and Canada was third, 0.401 seconds behind.

Norway's Anders Bardal wins ski jump in Germany

WILLINGEN, Germany (AP) Anders Bardal of Norway won a World Cup ski jump Sunday to take the lead in the overall standings.

Bardal cleared 145.5 meters with his first jump and 148 with his second to earn 277 points. Roman Koudelka of the Czech Republic finished second with 270.3 points. Daiki Ito of Japan was third with 264.4, despite clearing 149.5 meters with his first jump.

Bardal leads the overall standings with 1,117 points, ahead of Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer (1,059) and Andreas Kofler (1,049).

Norway also won the team event ahead of Austria on Saturday.

World Cup ski jumping resumes in Klingenthal, Germany, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Norway takes men's, women's World Cup relay

NOVE MESTO, Czech Republic (AP) -- Norway proved unbeatable Sunday, winning the men's and women's cross-country World Cup relay races. The U.S. women finished fifth.

Norway's Petter Northug used a strong finish to anchor the favored world champions to win the 4x10-kilometer competition in 1 hour, 40 minutes, 16.8 seconds.

Eldar Roenning, Niklas Dyrhaug and Martin Johnsrud skied the first three legs for the Norwegians, who beat the Russian team of Dmitriy Japarov, Stanislav Volzhentsev, Konstantin Glavatskikh and Maxim Vylegzhanin by 0.6 seconds. Sweden finished third, 2.2 second back.

Marit Bjoergen anchored Norway to a comfortable victory in the women's race. The team also included Vibeke Skofterud, Therese Johaug and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen. The Norwegians pulled away shortly after the start to win the 4x5-kilometer race in 54 minutes, 51.4 seconds.

The Finland team of Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, Riitta-Liisa Roponen and Krista Lahteenmaki took second, 32.6 seconds behind. It edged the Norway II team in a photo finish.

Bjoerndalen wins biathlon World Cup pursuit

KONTIOLAHTI, Finland (AP) -- Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen edged France's Martin Fourcade to win a World Cup 12.5-kilometer pursuit Sunday. Finland's Kaisa Makarainen captured the women's 10K race before home fans.

Bjoerndalen missed two targets in the first shooting round, but shot cleanly in the final round to overtake Fourcade and finish in 33 minutes, 43.8 seconds.

The Frenchman had one penalty in the second shooting round and missed another two shots in the final round. He finished second, 13.8 seconds back. Russia's Dmitry Malyshko was third, 22.7 seconds behind.

Makarainen missed one target and finished her race in 32 minutes, 23 seconds. Germany's Magdalena Neuner and Belarus' Darya Domracheva drew four penalties each and finished second and third, 35.9 seconds and 37 seconds back.

Kokslien claims second Almaty meet

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) -- Norway's Mikko Kokslien narrowly beat Japan's Akito Watabe on Sunday to win his second Nordic combined World Cup event in two days.

Kokslien moved up to third place in the World Cup standings. But he is still far short of France's Jason Lamy Chappuis, who holds a commanding lead with seven events remaining.

Bernhard Gruber of Austria was third, his first top-three finish of the season.

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