Ford captures giant slalom title at nationals

SUN VALLEY, IDAHO » Olympian Tommy Ford wrapped up a solid season by winning the giant slalom at the U.S. Alpine championships.

On a tough course, Ford finished in a combined time of 2 minutes, 11.60 seconds on Sunday to hold off Brian McLaughlin by 0.36 seconds. David Ketterer of Germany wound up third.

The 29-year-old Ford had his best season on the World Cup circuit with three top-10 finishes in the giant slalom. He also finished 20th in the discipline at the Pyeongchang Olympics last month.

McLaughlin had quite a year by winning three races on the NorAm level.

Saturday, Nina O’Brien won the women’s slalom and Hig Roberts captured the men’s event.

The U.S. championships wrap up Monday with a women’s giant slalom race.

Takanashi extends her all-time World Cup record in season finale

OBERSTDORF, GERMANY » One day after setting the all-time record with her first win of the season, Sara Takanashi extended it in Sunday’s ski jumping finale with her 55th World Cup victory.

The four-time World Cup winner from Japan, who ceded her season title to Maren Lundby of Norway, soared 99.0 and then 102.5 meters to earn top points for both, finishing with 250.4 to beat Daniela Iraschko-Stolz by 11.6 points and Lundby by 19.4.

It was Takanashi’s sixth consecutive win in Oberstdorf, and the same 1-2-3 podium finish as the day before.

Takanashi overtook Gregor Schlierenzauer’s 53 wins on Saturday to become the ski jumper with the most all-time victories. Schlierenzauer still holds the men’s record.

Lundby, the Olympic champion, brought her season tally to 1,340 points, finishing ahead of Germany’s Katharina Althaus on 928 and Takanashi on 916.

Another Japanese athlete, Yuki Ito, was fourth on 661, ahead of Russia’s Irina Avvakumova on 575.

Nordic combined champ Watabe concludes season with another win

SCHONACH, GERMANY » Overall winner Akito Watabe completed the season with his second consecutive World Cup win in Sunday’s Nordic combined finale.

The Japanese athlete, who won Saturday’s competition in the Black Forest resort of Schonach, was second behind Jarl Magnus Riiber in the ski jump but finished ahead of the Norwegian in the cross-country race. Watabe, who started with a 9-second delay, completed the 10-kilometer course in 34 minutes, 39.1 seconds, beating Riiber by 5.1 seconds overall.

Riiber, who also won Saturday’s ski jump, was runner-up for the second day in a row.

Germany’s Fabian Riessle was third, 48.1 back after coming in the ski jump.

Watabe, who finished with eight World Cup wins this season, ended on 1,495 points as he claimed his first crystal globe.

Norway’s Jan Schmid finished second on 1,133, ahead of Riessle on 1,087, Germany’s Johannes Rydzek on 849 and Norway’s Joergen Graabak on 830. fourth

Makarainen wins Biathlon World Cup title in dramatic finish to season

TYUMEN, RUSSIA » Kaisa Makarainen of Finland won the women’s biathlon World Cup for the third time in her career Sunday after a dramatic finish to the final race of the season.

Makarainen took the title by only three points with a sixth-place finish in Sunday’s 12.5-kilometer mass start event. Her main title rival, Anastasia Kuzmina of Slovakia, was 11th after taking a penalty on her final shooting stage.

Makarainen finished on 822 points, against 819 for Kuzmina and 804 for Sunday’s race winner, Darya Domracheva of Belarus. She won by 1.8 seconds from Slovakian Paulina Fialkova, with Anais Chevalier of France third. Makarainen also won the mass start discipline title.

Men’s World Cup champion Martin Fourcade of France added the mass start title to his collection on Sunday despite coming 19th in a race won by Maxim Tsvetkov of Russia.