Italian scores razor-thin slalom win
ADELBODEN, Switzerland — Stefano Gross of Italy won a tight World Cup slalom on Sunday in which just 0.03 seconds separated the top three finishers.
A first career World Cup victory for Gross denied first-run leader Fritz Dopfer of Germany his first win by 0.02. Overall World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher of Austria extended his standings lead in third, a further 0.01 behind Gross’s combined two-run time of 1 minute, 56.70 seconds.
At age 28, Gross finally won after recording three podium finishes in the 2012 season and placing fourth in the Sochi Olympics slalom last February, where he tied with Dopfer, just 0.05 shy of the bronze medal winning time.
Canada sweeps games
CALGARY — Canada swept all three skins games Sunday to win the Continental Cup at Canada Olympic Park.
Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen secured the victory when he picked up a full point in his match against Sweden’s Niklas Edin, giving Canada an insurmountable lead over the European team.
McEwen went on to win by a score of 3 ½ to 1 ½ . Rachel Homan of Ottawa defeated Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson 3 ½-1 ½ and Canada beat Europe in the mixed team competition by the same score to secure the victory.
Canadians edge S. Korea
SHENZHEN, China — Canada kicked off the Four Nations women’s soccer tournament with a 2-1 victory over South Korea Sunday at the Shenzhen Bao’an Sports Center.
Yue Minji opened the scoring before Janine Beckie of Regina and Kadeisha Buchanan of Toronto tallied in the second half for Canada.
The teams split their two meetings last year. Canada holds the No. 9 position in the latest FIFA world rankings, eight spots ahead of South Korea. No. 13 China, the tournament host, and No. 25 Mexico are the other teams in the round robin tournament. Canada will play Mexico on Tuesday.
Kramer sets record haul
CHELYABINSK, Russia — Sven Kramer took a record seventh European all-around speedskating title Sunday as he and fellow Dutch skater Ireen Wust won their respective events.
Kramer was second behind fellow Dutch skater Koen Verweij going into the 10,000 metres, the last of the four events over two days, but beat Verweij by nine seconds to overtake him in the overall standings, finishing with 149.928 points. Kramer had previously won Saturday’s 5,000. His victory allowed him to surpass the six championship wins set by Rinte Rijnsma of the Netherlands between 1994 and 2000.
Olympic champ stays hot
OBERHOF, Germany — Darya Domracheva of Belarus won a 12.5-kilometre mass start for her third biathlon World Cup win of the season on Sunday.
The Olympic champion overcame four missed targets and finished in 26 minutes, 28.8 seconds, beating the Czech Republic’s Veronika Vitkova by 14.9 seconds. Vitkova, who claimed her first World Cup victory in Friday’s sprint, had two missed targets, as did Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff, who was 21.7 seconds back in third. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore, Alta., was 20th.
Martin Fourcade of France won men’s gold in 44:52.0. Anton Shipulin was second in 45:05.1 and Russian teammate Dmitry Malyshko took the bronze in 45:22.7. Calgary’s Nathan Smith tied for 20th.