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Winter Sports Roundup Skari wins Cross-Country World CupPosted: Saturday March 16, 2002 11:14 AMUpdated: Sunday March 17, 2002 4:03 PM OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Bente Skari won her third career World Cup title Saturday despite finishing only 15th in the women's 30-kilometer freestyle race at Holmenkollen, while fellow Norwegian Thomas Alsgaard won the men's 50-kilometer freestyle to close in on overall leader Per Elofsson. Alsgaard dominated the grueling race from start to finish, beating teammate Kristen Skjeldal by 27.6 seconds in what is considered the sport's premier event outside the Olympics and the world championships. Elofsson, the defending World Cup champion and last year's winner at Holmenkollen, struggled throughout and wound up ninth. Going into the final race of the season, the notorious 58-kilometer Birkebeineren in Lillehammer, Norway, next week, the Swede has 748 points in the overall standings, 71 ahead of than Alsgaard. Skjeldal is third with 498. Alsgaard said he had given up the overall title a week ago during a World Cup meet in Sweden but still came motivated to Holmenkollen. "It's the first time in many years that I was so fired up for a 50K so late in the season," Alsgaard said. "It's very special to win the 50K at Holmenkollen. I never thought I'd manage to win today." Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy placed third, 2:28.7 behind. Fellow Italian Stefania Belmondo won the women's 30K in 1 hour, 14 minutes, 35.3 seconds. Kristina Smigun of Estonia finished second in 1:14.57, followed by Gabriella Paruzzi of Italy in 1:15.03.9. Skari needed a top-15 finish to clinch the overall title and she did just that. Going into the final event of the season, the Norwegian has an unbeatable 104-point race over her closest rival, Katerina Neumannova of the Czech Republic. Neumannova clocked 1:16.13.2 for eighth place. Skaris's time was 1:17.43.7. The 29-year-old classical-style specialist also won the overall title in 1999 and 2000 and finished second twice over the last five years. "I wanted to charge ahead as fast as I could but at the 12-kilometer mark, I had a crisis," said Neumannova. The Czech caught up with Skari, who set off 90 seconds before her, some seven kilometers before the finish line. "But I lacked strength to step up the speed and break away," she said. Skari leads the overall standings with 856 points against 752 for Neumannova. Belmondo is third with 682. Belmondo has a chance to climb to second overall if she wins at Lillehammer. Neumannova, who prefers shorter distances and rarely contests races longer than 15 kilometers, is yet to decide whether she'll compete in the Birkebeineren. Nordic: Ackermann clinches titleOSLO, Norway (AP) -- Germany's Ronny Ackermann clinched the Nordic combined Word Cup on Saturday after finishing third in the final sprint event of the season. Felix Gottwald of Austria, Ackermann's only rival for the overall title, improved from 22nd in ski jumping to sixth after the 7.5 cross-country sprint, but that was only enough for second place overall. Hannu Manninen won in the race ahead of fellow Fin Samppa Lajunen. Ackermann finished the season with 2,110 points while Gottwald collected 1,986 points. Lajunen, a triple gold medalist from last month's Salt Lake City Olympics, wound up third with 1,863. Speedskating: Shepel leads standingsHEERENVEEN, Netherlands (AP) -- Russian Dimitry Shepel leads the standings in the All-round Speedskating World Championships Saturday after skating to victory in the 1,500 meters in 1 minute 48.44 seconds. Shepel owed his lead to a blunder by Dutchman Gianni Romme who was disqualified after impeding American Olympic gold medallist Derek Parra in the penultimate race. Parra was forced to leap into the air acrobatically as the Dutchmen crossed into the outside lane ahead of him coming out of a bend on the second lap. But the American still managed to finish second in 1:48.56. Romme crossed the line in the best time of all, 1:48.34, but his disqualification stood after a protest was lodged. Parra declined the opportunity to skate his race again at the end of the competition. Dutchman Jochem Uytdehaage lost out to Shepel on the last race finishing fourth in 1:49.51 to drop back to second overall in the standings. But he remains favorite, needing to make up only 3.22 seconds on Shepel in Sunday's 10,000. Jennifer Rodriguez of the United States, winner of Friday's 500, held on to first place in the women's standings by skating to third in the 1,500 in a time of 1:57.71. Anni Friesinger won the 1,500 in 1:56.43, but only climbed to third place in the standings behind Canadian Cindy Klassen, who skated to her second silver medal of the championships in 1:56.88. Friesinger was favored to climb atop the leaderboard later in the afternoon since she only needed to make up 2.61 seconds on Rodriquez in the 3,000, one of the German's strongest distances. Claudia Pechstein, the German rival with whom Friesinger has been sparring in the press this week, remained well-positioned, taking fourth place in the 1,500 and overall. Biathlon: Germany wins men's relayLAHTI, Finland (AP) -- Veteran Sven Fischer overtook Egil Gjelland on the penultimate leg and Germany held on to beat Norway by 49.2 seconds in a men's World Cup biathlon relay Saturday. The victory avenged a 45.3-second loss to Norway in the Winter Olympics last month, when Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won four gold medals. Bjoerndalen did not compete in the 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay. Others on the German quartet were Ricco Gross, Michael Greis and anchorman Frank Luck, who never was challenged by Norway's Halvard Hanevold on the last leg. The German quartet, which shot consistently and only had to ski one penalty-loop against two for Norway, was timed in 1 hour, 25 minutes and 18.5 seconds. Belarus finished third and Finland fourth. German also won the women's relay Friday.
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