Winter sports: Norway's Svindal wins downhill title

Schladming, Austria • Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway won the men's downhill title at the Alpine skiing world championships Saturday after a powerful run down the Planai course that no one came close to matching.

Svindal kept a near-perfect line down the entire 3.33-kilometer course to finish in 2 minutes, 1.32 seconds for his second world downhill title, after also winning the marquee event in 2007.

American Stacey Cook posted the fastest time in final training session for the women's downhill.

Luge

Olympic and world champion Armin Zoggeler earned his 55th title in World Cup luge, leading an Italian sweep of the event at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y.

All three of the American men had career-best performances in the World Cup. Chris Mazdzer of Saranac Lake, N.Y. was fifth, Taylor Morris of South Jordan tied for seventh and Joe Mortensen of Huntington Station, N.Y., was 11th.

Figure skating

Kevin Reynolds of Canada upstaged favorite Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan to win the Four Continents event with a near-flawless free skate in Osaka, Japan.

U.S. national champion Max Aaron, who was 10th after the short program, finished fourth.

Ski jumping

Peter Prevc soared 143 and 142 meters to lead Slovenia to victory at a ski jumping World Cup in Willingen, Germany.

Strong winds forced organizers to call off a women's ski jump World Cup event at the Zao ski resort in Yamagata, Japan, and move it to Sunday.

Speedskating

Olympic champion Ireen Wust of the Netherlands won the 1,500-meter race at a speedskating World Cup event in Inzell, Germany.

Biathlon

Emil Hegle Svendsen won gold in the 10-kilometer sprint on Saturday for his second title at the biathlon world championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, while Olena Pidhrushna of Ukraine won the 7.5K race.