International Capsules: Germany and Canada win WC skeleton races

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — The home-ice advantage for the U.S. skeleton team vanished for the second straight week in World Cup competition and Canada and Germany took advantage in the snowless Adirondack Mountains.

With the Winter Olympics in Canada less than three months away, Frank Rommel led a 1-2 German finish in the men’s race on Friday at Mount Van Hoevenberg, only hours after Mellisa Hollingsworth had won gold for Canada in the women’s event.

"It was a strong team performance," Rommel said after the Germans took three of the top six spots. "We have a good team."

"I think they’re trying to send a message," U.S. slider Noelle Pikus-Pace, the top U.S. finisher in fifth behind Hollingsworth. "This season is really critical. Everybody is out for that gold medal and coming out strong. This is the most competitive season we’ve had since I’ve been a part of the sport. It’s very, very tough competition."

The victory was sweet redemption for Rommel, who won four World Cup races last season before struggling to 13th place in the skeleton world championships here. He posted the fastest times on both runs to easily beat teammate Sandro Stielicke in the second race of the World Cup season.

Rommel finished in 1 minute, 50.88 seconds, nearly a half-second ahead of Stielicke.

"It’s kind of revenge for last year’s world championships here," Rommel said. "It wasn’t my race then. This time I knew how to take care of myself. I’m quite happy to bring it all together today."

Stielicke finished in 1:51.36, followed by Martins Dukurs of Latvia, who won the World Cup opener a week ago at Park City, Utah. Dukurs took the bronze, just 0.01 seconds behind Stielicke, and Dukurs’ brother Tomass was fourth in 1:51.50.

The top U.S. finisher was Eric Bernotas in fifth at 1:51.71, followed by Zach Lund in 10th at 1:52.14, and rookie John Daly 11th at 1:52.15 in just his second career World Cup race.

In two races, the top finish by the American men has been a fifth in each event. Blame it on Mother Nature.

The opener at Park City was plagued by heavy snow. On Friday, sliders faced a soft track because of a steady overnight rain and temperatures in the 40s. That left some water on the course and made the race much different from the fast conditions that prevailed during a week of training.

"The soft ice takes a little bit of the home-track advantage away," said Lund, who’s been nursing a sore hamstring. "We’ve had a spate of bad luck at our home tracks with the weather for our sliding styles. When it’s harder, you have more speed, and the more speed helps you make up time down the track. That’s just racing."

Still, the 24-year old Daly was ecstatic. He posted the second- and third-best starts among the 23 competitors and even beat Canadian Jeff Pain, a former World Cup champion and the silver medalist at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

"It went good, two solid runs," Daly said. "That’s the best job I can do today. I’m moving up. Some of these guys have been on the tour half of my lifetime. It’s definitely intimidating. You make one mistake and they’ll eat you up."

Hollingsworth led after a first-heat run of 57.54 seconds and finished the two-heat race in 1:54.85 to edge Shelley Rudman of Great Britain by 0.23 seconds. Rudman finished just 0.05 seconds ahead of world champion Marion Trott of Germany, who took the bronze in 1:55.13.

Hollingsworth’s gold gave Canada its third medal in two races.

"We definitely have come out with a great start, having two podiums," said Hollingsworth, who was third a week ago, just behind silver-medal-winning teammate Amy Gough. "It’s a great start to hopefully a great ending to the season."

Katie Uhlaender of the United States finished 12th in 1:56.15. Teammate Rebecca Sorensen was next in 1:56.20.

Anja Huber of Germany, who won the women’s season-opener, was in Germany rehabbing an ankle she injured while walking the Lake Placid track on Sunday. Rommel said the team was hopeful Huber could race again at next week’s race in Cesana, Italy.

"Even though we’re competitors, we never wish any harm to come to any of the athletes," Pikus-Pace said. "She was in a really good position, so it’s really sad to see her go. I think we’d all rather beat everybody when they’re at their best. Hopefully, she’ll be back and competing in no time."

-- John Kekis

Northug the man to beat as Olympic season starts

Petter Northug enters the Olympic season as the man to beat in cross-country skiing, and he isn’t doing much to downplay expectations.

The 23-year-old Norwegian has an unrivaled sprinting ability that is matched by his confident swagger and unwavering belief that he is close to unbeatable in the final stages of a race.

It’s an attitude that has helped make him the sport’s biggest star going into the Vancouver Olympics, but also has a habit of rubbing some of his rivals the wrong way. Before this weekend’s World Cup opener in Norway, some German reporters wanted to know whether Northug really is as arrogant as he seems.

The three-time world champion’s retort was simple: It’s not arrogance, he insisted, when you’re the best.

"I just cross the finish line first," he said with a shrug. "That’s it."

He’ll get his first chance of the season to prove that in a 15-kilometer freestyle race in Beitostoelen, the first event of the World Cup calendar. A team relay is Sunday.

Northug already has his sights set on a bigger target, however.

After taking three golds at this year’s world championships, Northug can cement his place as the next Norwegian skiing great with an equally dominant performance in Vancouver.

"You think about the Olympics pretty much every day, all the time," Northug said. "It’s in the back of your head throughout."

Northug’s explosiveness and speed gives him the potential to be the most dominant cross-country skier since Bjorn Dahlie, the Norwegian all-time great who won eight Olympic golds between 1992 and ‘98.

Northug represents a new breed of skier who excels in the increasingly common mass-start races — a format that is seen as more TV friendly than the traditional interval start competitions.

While interval starts force every skier to set his own pace throughout the race, a mass start becomes a more tactical event — similar to long-distance running — where the good sprinters can simply tag along behind those up front, biding their time before the frantic finish.

No one does that better than Northug. If his rivals can’t shake him off before the final kilometer, he usually wins.

He showed that at this year’s worlds in Liberec, Czech Republic, where Northug won the 30-kilometer skiathlon and 50K freestyle races — both mass-start events — and anchored Norway’s winning relay team.

All three races finished in identical fashion: After letting others do the hard work up front, Northug blew by them shortly before the end, quickly building enough of a lead to start celebrating well before the finish line.

This year, he is determined to become more of a force in the interval starts and classical-style races after finishing second overall in last season’s World Cup behind Dario Cologna.

Cologna has been hampered by a thigh injury this offseason, and the Swiss skier only decided this week that he is fit enough to compete in the World Cup opener.

"I’m pretty tired from the number of training hours over the last week," Cologna said. "I’m very anxious to see where I stand compared to the competition."

Northug’s other main rivals include German duo Axel Teichmann and Tobias Angerer, along with Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic.

On the women’s side, Norway’s Marit Bjorgen is showing signs of returning to the form that earned her two overall World Cup titles and four world championships titles this decade.

Bjorgen dominated both warmup races in Beitostoelen last weekend, a 5K and a 10K.

"I think and hope that my form is going to last," said Bjorgen, who struggled last season and is still looking for her first Olympic gold.

Northug also showed good form his last warmup event, winning last weekend’s 15K race in Beitostoelen.

"I’m in better shape than I was at this time last year," Northug said. "I believe I’ll take a step forward this year."

However, his preparations were distracted this week after Northug clashed with the Norwegian skiing federation over a private sponsorship deal with energy drink producer Red Bull.

The deal has rankled the other sponsors for Norway’s ski team, and Northug was fined by the federation after wearing a hat with the company’s logo during a TV interview without permission.

A Norwegian newspaper then reported that Northug was considering breaking away from the national team after this season, although both the skier and the federation have denied those intentions.

All the fuss is unlikely to affect Northug, who claims not to have read a single newspaper article about himself in years.

That should help him keep his mind focused on Vancouver, and making up for the disappointment of failing to make the Norwegian team for the 2006 Turin Games.

"If I leave the Olympics with a gold, I’ll be happy. That’s the goal," he said. "I’ve used what happened in 2006 as motivation. This is my first chance to come to an Olympics, so it’s new and exciting for me."

-- Mattias Karen

Female ski jumpers hear reasons for case dismissal

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Vancouver Olympic organizers didn’t violate women ski jumpers’ rights because they had no power to include their event in the 2010 Winters Games.

The British Columbia Appeal Court provided written reasons on Friday for its decision last week to dismiss an appeal filed by female jumpers seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that allowed organizers to hold a men’s ski jumping competition but not a women’s event. The women argued that violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The women had asked the courts to rule that the organizing committee, known as VANOC, must either include a women’s ski jumping event in February’s games or cancel the men’s event.

The three-member appeals panel unanimously rejected their appeal last week, but only provided their reasons for doing so on Friday.

British Columbia’s highest court concluded that while excluding the women’s event was discriminatory, VANOC could not be held accountable because the decision rested solely with the International Olympic Committee.

"It is a case in which a non-governmental body (VANOC) is brought before the court as a result of policies which neither it nor any Canadian authority has the power to change," the justices wrote in the ruling.

"VANOC simply does not have the power to determine what events are included in the 2010 Olympic program."

The British Columbia Supreme Court ruled in July that the IOC was discriminating against the female ski jumpers, but Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon said the court did not have the power to order the sport be part of the program.

Both VANOC and the lawyer for the female jumpers declined to comment on Friday.

The women could seek an appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada, but that process could take months and the Vancouver 2010 opening ceremonies are less than three months away.

Ski jumping is the only Olympic sport without events for both men and women since the IOC voted earlier this year to include women’s boxing in the Summer Olympics.

The IOC voted in 2006 to not include women’s ski jumping at the games, saying the sport had not met the required technical criteria.

It will be on the program for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, and the international body that governs ski jumping has said it will press for its inclusion for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Stiegler done for season with broken bones in leg

VAIL, Colo. — U.S. skier Resi Stiegler is out for the season after breaking two bones in her left leg in a crash during giant slalom training.

The U.S. Ski Team said Friday that Stiegler, a 2006 Olympian from Jackson Hole, Wyo., had surgery for fractures to her tibia and femur.

"This was a serious injury for Resi, but her spirit is strong," U.S. Ski Team medical director Richard Quincy said in a statement. "One of the first things she asked was if she could be ready for on-snow camp in New Zealand next summer."

The injuries from Thursday’s accident at Copper Mountain are the latest obstacle for the 24-year-old Stiegler. She was sidelined for more than a year after hurting her left arm and right knee in a December 2007 crash in Lienz, Austria.

Stiegler returned in February 2009 and finished 19th in the slalom at the world championships. She then fractured her foot a few weeks later.

"Really bummed for her," three-time Olympian Sarah Schleper said Thursday after cutting short her giant slalom workout following Stiegler’s crash. "She’s a lot of good energy for us.

"She was starting to ski well again. This is going to be really tough for her. We’re going to be supporting her 100 percent, though."

Figure Skating

Rochette leads Skate Canada, delights home crowd

KITCHENER, Ontario — Listening to her coach paid off for Joannie Rochette.

Big time.

The world silver medalist scored a personal-best 70 points in the short program at Skate Canada on Friday, putting her well in front of Americans Alissa Czisny and Mirai Nagasu. Rochette gasped when she saw the marks, which drew a huge cheer from the red-clad crowd at The Aud.

"I still can improve with this, but I’m really excited. It’s my first time in the 70s," Rochette said. "It shows me that this program can take me where I want to go."

Czisny, the U.S. champion, scored 63.52, while Nagasu earned 56.34. The free skate is Saturday.

Also Friday, world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany took a commanding lead in the pairs competition while ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada built a solid lead with the compulsory dance.

The men’s short program was later Friday.

Rochette’s performance was quite a turnaround from her awful short program at Cup of China, where she botched a triple-triple combination she wasn’t even supposed to do. It left her all the way down in seventh.

"I kind of changed it without my coach’s consent," said Rochette, who rallied to win the bronze medal. "I really wanted to challenge myself and I did not follow the plan. So I think that’s when I learned the importance of a plan and sticking to it."

Rochette has a triple-triple in her free skate, and routinely lands them in practice. But with no room for error in the short, where skaters must do a set of required elements, coach Manon Peron said it’s not worth the risk.

On Friday, Rochette opened with a clean triple lutz-double toe loop combo and later did a triple flip and a double axel. All of her jumps were done with polish and ease.

"She doesn’t need it," Peron said of the triple-triple. "In the short program, you cannot make a mistake, so be safe, use the elements that you already have and go and pick up all the points that you can."

Despite the personal best, Rochette said her saucy tango can score even higher. She didn’t earn full marks for her spins or spiral sequence.

"My goal tonight when I stepped on the ice was to feel more calm and more relaxed and I think I achieved that," she said. "I still think I can do better, so it’s encouraging for the rest of the season."

Wearing black-and-white makeup on their faces and traditional mime costumes, Savchenko and Szolkowy’s "Send in the Clowns" program was a definite crowd-pleaser. They scored 74.16 points, almost 10 points ahead of Russia’s Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov.

"I think the performance today was not bad. Actually it was quite good, not perfect," Szolkowy said. "It was little bit slow, kind of tired, but very concentrated on the elements."

Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison of Canada were well back in third (57.90) after Dube singled a planned triple salchow. The pairs free skate is Saturday.

Virtue and Moir, surprise bronze medalists at worlds after missing most of the season because of injury, lived up to their favorites title. The Canadians scored 40.69 points, more than five better than France’s Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat.

The original dance is Saturday and the free dance is Sunday.

Track & Field

IAAF still in talks over Caster Semenya’s future

MONACO — The governing body of track and field is working behind the scenes with Caster Semenya and the South African government to resolve issues about the 18-year-old runner’s gender and career.

The IAAF said Friday it cannot confirm the South African sports ministry’s claims of a deal allowing Semenya to keep the 800-meter world title and prize money she won in August and maintain privacy over her gender-test results.

International Association of Athletics Federations spokesman Nick Davies said the parties are "almost there" in concluding complex negotiations.

"It is premature to discuss the contents of what (the South African government) said until we’re ready to say, yes, that we totally agree with it," Davies said. "This is being handled carefully at one level politically, but also in the medical-scientific realm.

"Obviously, we are working flat-out quietly behind the scenes to resolve it. Fingers crossed, we will be able to get there very quickly."

The circumstances under which Semenya could resume her track career remain unclear.

Davies said questions would not be resolved during a two-day meeting of the IAAF’s ruling council, which began Friday in Monaco. The council did agree to launch an investigation into recent "behavior and actions" by the leadership of Athletics South Africa.

The IAAF had been expected to confirm test results during the sessions, but said Wednesday the subject was off the agenda because of more medical testing.

"These people are being trusted to continue their work, and they were congratulated for the work they’ve been doing because it hasn’t been at all easy," Davies said in a break from council meetings.

On Thursday, South Africa’s sports ministry revealed an apparent deal that would allow Semenya to keep her gold medal and her medical records confidential.

Semenya won the women’s 800 at the world championships in Berlin in August, clocking a season-best time of 1 minute, 55.45 seconds. The IAAF said hours before the race that it ordered gender tests to be conducted because of her muscular build and rapid improvement in times.

Australian newspapers reported in September that Semenya has male and female sexual organs, but the IAAF has refused to confirm or deny those claims.

In South Africa, the case has also entangled Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene. In September, Chuene admitted he lied about his knowledge of gender tests performed on Semenya in South Africa before the worlds. He has since been suspended.

Davies said the IAAF’s investigation would concentrate solely on the ASA’s leadership in recent months.

"The relationship we have with our member (federation) means we also need to take action," Davies said. "That does not mean that ASA is suspended by the IAAF. The athletes won’t be penalized ... and will still be able to compete."

Davies said the IAAF welcomed the International Olympic Committee’s decision to hold a symposium aimed at drafting guidelines for dealing with ambiguous gender issues.

The IAAF is helping to fund the conference, which will be held in January in Miami Beach, Fla.

-- Graham Dunbar

IAAF creates more intense world champs program

MONACO — The track and field governing body has changed the world championships program to create a more concentrated schedule.

The IAAF said Friday it wants marquee evening sessions to include at least six gold-medal finals taking place within three hours.

The opening day of qualification rounds should feature events like the men’s 100 meters and women’s 400. Athletes in the 100 and sprint hurdles will run their semifinals and final in the same evening session.

The IAAF wants a maximum of three rounds for all events, with qualification rounds restricted to mornings.

The nine-day championships will reserve one day for road races outside the stadium.

The changes take effect at the 2011 worlds in Daegu, South Korea.

Cycling

Kazakhs pledge $22 million for Astana cycling team

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan’s state sovereign fund pledged $22 million in financial backing to the Astana cycling team Friday, ensuring the squad stays alive and Tour de France champion Alberto Contador remains in its ranks.

Astana’s current racing license is due to expire at the end of next year, but recurring delays in paying salaries to riders have prompted the International Cycling Union to demand guarantees on the team’s financial viability by this week.

"Samruk-Kazyna (state holding) has provided UCI with a guarantee of financial backing worth euro15 million ($22 million) for this season," Kazakh Cycling Federation deputy president Nikolai Proskurin said.

About $3.7 million has been transferred this week to the paying agency that handles team salaries, Proskurin added.

In a further symbolic gesture of state support for Astana, Samruk-Kazyna chairman Kairat Kelimbetov has been named as head of the country’s cycling federation.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has taken a personal interest in the fate of the team, which is seen as a prestige project for the Central Asian nation.

Astana is also in talks with an Italian telecommunications company over an additional sponsorship deal, Proskurin said.

The Kazakh-backed team says it has submitted all the necessary documentation to ensure it retains its license. A final decision by the UCI on the team’s fate is imminent and is expected by early next week.

"If they deny us a license, they would put around 60 people out of work for absolutely no reason at all," Proskurin said.

Proskurin also denied media reports that Astana has offered to double Contador’s contract to $12 million per year.

According to Proskurin, rumors about the Spanish rider’s future with Astana have been orchestrated by former team manager Johan Bruyneel as an attempt to sow discord. Bruyneel parted ways with Astana in July amid an acrimonious dispute over the planned return of Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov.

Vinokourov was given a two-year ban for blood doping during the 2007 Tour de France, forcing Astana out of the competition.

Proskurin said Astana has been approached by a number of high-profile riders with offers to compete for the team beginning in 2011. He declined to provide any names, but expressed an interest in signing Italian rider Ivan Basso, currently with Liquigas, and expressed admiration for British rider Bradley Wiggins, who placed fourth at this year’s Tour.

"I would have put all my money on him not coming in among the top 10," Proskurin said. "But he worked hard, and what he managed to achieve was amazing."

-- Peter Leonard

Rugby

Eagles unchanged for Rugby World Cup qualifier

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The United States will send the same team that beat Uruguay in Montevideo last weekend to finish the job Saturday and qualify for the Rugby World Cup.

The Eagles won the first leg 27-22 and can lose by less than five points and still win on aggregate and reach their fourth consecutive Cup, in New Zealand in 2011.

"With just a five-point spread between the teams we have to approach this game as a one-off final," U.S. coach Eddie O’Sullivan said. "As far as we are concerned the score is 0-0 with 80 minutes remaining. It’s all to play for."

The Eagles have lost to Uruguay only once in 20 years, and are unbeaten at home.

The Teros dropped both wingers for Alejandro Silveira and Tomas Jolivet in the only changes to their lineup, which rallied from 27-6 down to retain hope of making the World Cup.

The winner will join Pool C with Australia, Ireland, Italy and a European team yet to be determined, while the loser will advance to a second chance playoffs.