LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland -- Marcel Hirscher clinched his third straight overall World Cup title on Saturday but couldnt prevent Ted Ligety from winning his
fifth season-long giant slalom trophy.
Blake Comeau
Avalanche Jersey . A race that came down to a few hundredths of a second
saw Hirscher finish fourth, giving him enough points to clinch the sports
biggest prize. Ligety won the race and thereby tied the Austrian on points in
the season-long discipline standings, giving the American the GS title on a
tiebreaker as he had more race victories. "Its an unbelievable happy day," said
Hirscher, content to concede the discipline to the American dubbed "Mr. GS" by
race announcers. "My big goal was the overall World Cup title and I got it and
Im so happy," said the 25-year-old Hirscher, the first man to win three in a row
since American Phil Mahre completed the feat in 1983. Hirscher needed 19 points
to overtake Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who led the standings going into the
race but skied out in the first run. Fourth place gave the Austrian 50 points.
Hirscher completed Austrias first overall title double since 2002, after Anna
Fenninger clinched her first womens title this week. They both come from
villages near Salzburg and raced each other as juniors. Ligety earned his
victory in a crowd-pleasing race by just 0.03 seconds ahead of runner-up Alexis
Pinturault of France, in a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 15.63 seconds.
"Im super-thrilled. That was by the skin of my teeth today," Ligety said. He
still relied on a big assist from first-run leader Felix Neureuther of Germany
to make clinch the discipline title as the narrow margins all fell Ligetys way.
Ligety, the Olympic champion in GS, was second-fastest in the morning and had
time in the start house to absorb the second-leg target set by Hirscher.
Hirscher finished outside provisional leader Pinturaults time, leaving Ligety an
opening. The 29-year-old American came down barely faster than Pinturault,
drawing applause from Hirscher who was in the finish area already knowing he was
overall champion. Ligety then needed his good friend Neureuther to finish second
or third in the narrow time gap between himself and Hirscher. Neureuther did it
in the tightest way possible, finishing 0.01 ahead of Hirscher, who was
relegated to fourth. With 10 fewer points awarded for fourth than third, he fell
into a tie with Ligety on 560 over the eight-race season. Ligety got the
tiebreaker with five World Cup race wins against Hirschers two. "Felix, I owe a
lot of beers," Ligety said. Hirscher was smiling later, after watching Ligety
and Neureuther roll around the finish-area snow in celebration. "He is not
allowed to travel to Austria. It is over. Just kidding," Hirscher said of
Neureuthers intervention. They will renew their rivalry Sunday for the
season-long slalom title. "He is very mad about me so its going to be very
close," said Neureuther, who leads Hirscher by five points in the slalom
standings. Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway is also in contention. Svindal faded
again, extending his disappointing series of results since leaving the Sochi
Olympics early, affected by allergies and without a medal. He is not competing
in Sundays slalom. "It was a good season but it could have been fantastic," said
Svindal, who won the World Cup titles in downhill and super-G though all but
conceded the overall title to Hirscher earlier in the week. "That was too bad,
because I had a really good opportunity to win the biggest thing a ski racer can
win," said Svindal, a two-time former overall champion. Ligety completed a race
double for the U.S. team Saturday, with Mikaela Shiffrin earlier winning her
fifth World Cup slalom this season. The American anthem played four times in
quick succession for a crowd of 10,500 at the Swiss venue -- twice each for
Ligety and Shiffrins race and season title victories. The Austrian anthem will
dominate Sunday, when Hirscher and Fenninger get their giant crystal globes.
Tyson Barrie
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Butler saved the Super Bowl for the New England Patriots.
Paul Kariya
Avalanche Jersey . - The Seattle Seahawks have signed nine players to 2014
future contracts, including quarterback B.
http://www.hockeyavalancheproshop.com/erik-johnson-jersey/ . A 23-year-old rookie, Stroman is 4-2 with a 3.44 earned run average in 12
games this season, the past seven of those being starts. He logged the first
scoreless outing of his career on Friday versus Oakland in a no-decision.Del
Mar, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - When nominations closed Thursday night for Del
Mars $300,000 Hollywood Derby, 22 3-year-olds were named led by Kentucky Derby
and Preakness winner California Chrome and Queens Plate champ Lexie Lou. The
trainers for both California Chrome and Lexie Lou gave strong indications that
the two will meet in the 1 1/8-mile turf stakes on Saturday, Nov. 29.
(California Chrome) came out of the race (Breeders Cup Classic) great. I was up
there (Los Alamitos) on Monday and trained him and he looks super, trainer Art
Sherman said Wednesday morning. Ive wanted to try him on turf, this is an
opportune time. And Horse of the Year is on the line. If he wins it, maybe he
could be Horse of the Year. It could help. I dont know. While Sherman also
nominated his chestnut colt to the Native Diver, same day as the Derby, he
clearly is looking at the Derby for Chromes next start. Just the way he moves
(running motion) makes me think he could be a good grass horse, Sherman said
Thursday morning. Ive wanted to try him on turf, this is an opportune time. If
he can run on grass it will give me a lot of options with him next year as a
4-year-old. Lexie Lou, trained by Mark Casse, is no stranger to turf or taking
on male 3-year-olds.
Lanny McDonald
Avalanche Jersey. The filly defeated colts and geldings in the Queens
Plate and knows her way around a grass course. I got to tell you I think our
filly is pretty tough. She hasnt beaten California Chrome, but she has beaten
the boys before. Actually, I think its kind of intriguing, Casse remarked. One
thing we know is, our horse will run on the grass. This is my 34th year
(training). Ive breezed a lot of horses over the grass and Ive done a lot of
things. Ive had horses that worked good on the grass that I thought would run
lights out and they didnt run a lick. Ive had ones that didnt look very good in
works that ran great in the race. You never know until you try. As a backup,
Casse also nominated Lexie Lou to the $300,000 Matriarch, one mile on turf for
older fillies and mares on Sunday, Nov. 30, Turf winners also nominated for the
Hollywood Derby include Long On Value and Tourist, both trained by Bill Mott.
Long On Value won Santa Anitas Twilight Derby going 1 1/8 miles on turf with
Rosie Napravnik riding on the Breeders Cup opening day card. Tourist, ridden by
Joel Rosario, was runner-up to Adelaide in the 1 1/4-mile Secretariat Stakes on
Arlington Million Day, Aug. 16 at Arlington Park.
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