Holcomb breaks through in bobsled

Steven Holcomb took "The Night Train" to the top of the podium at the bobsled world championships yesterday, lifting the weight of a 50-year drought from the US men's team. Holcomb was the class of the field on all four runs of the four-man competition at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y., and piloted the USA-1 sled, painted flat black, to the gold medal. Holcomb beat defending champion Andre Lange of Germany by nearly one second, an eye-popping margin in a sliding sport, finishing with a time of 3 minutes 36.61 seconds. Janis Minins of Latvia took the bronze, one full second behind Holcomb. It was the first triumph for the United States in four-man at the world championships since Arthur Tyler won at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 1959. "I can't believe, finally, after 50 years we got it done," Holcomb said. "We were definitely the team to beat today. It all came together." Todd Hays of Del Rio, Texas, finished ninth in USA-2 and John Napier of Schenectady, N.Y., was 11th in USA-3.

Lindsey Vonn of the United States won her fourth straight women's World Cup super-G race, increasing her lead in the overall standings to nearly 400 points. The American won in 1:14.49 in Bansko, Bulgaria, a day after clinching the downhill title. Fabienne Suter of Switzerland was second, .58 behind, and Tina Maze of Slovenia was third, .91 back. Vonn, who has 1,556 points, leads Maria Riesch of Germany by 391 points in the overall standings . . . Julien Lizeroux of France won a men's World Cup slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, for his second victory of the season, and Ivica Kostelic of Croatia finished 11th and retained a narrow lead in the overall standings. American Ted Ligety, who won Saturday's giant slalom, skied out on the first run. Lizeroux finished in a combined time of 1:40.11 to beat Giuliano Razzoli of Italy, who led after the opening run, by .34 seconds. Felix Neureuther of Germany was .56 back in third. Ligety was .08 seconds faster than the leader at the first intermediate time of the opening run but straddled a gate . . . Petter Northug sprinted away from his rivals again to win the men's 50-kilometer freestyle race for his third gold medal at the Nordic skiing world championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. Northug dropped Maxim Vylegzhanin of Russia and Tobias Angerer of Germany on the home straight to finish in 1 hour 59 minutes 38.1 seconds . . . Daniel Tynell broke away with about 5 kilometers to go and won the Vasaloppet cross-country ski marathon in Mora, Sweden, for the third time. Tynell covered the 90-kilometer (56 miles) classic-style race in 4:10:55. Oskar Svard, another Swedish three-time winner, finished second in 4:11.18. Stanislav Rezac of the Czech Republic was third in 4:11.33.

Dallas Stars center Steve Ott was suspended indefinitely by the NHL after he received a penalty for attempting to injure Anaheim's Travis Moen at the end of Saturday's game. Ott missed yesterday's home game against Pittsburgh and won't be eligible to play until after a hearing with league officials that will determine a specific length of the ban. Ott and Moen squared off in a fight after the final horn sounded in Anaheim's 4-3 victory. Ott's hand made contact with Moen's eye, which game officials ruled was an eye-gouge and gave him a match penalty for attempting to injure. Ott left the ice with two cuts on his face . . . Alex Ovechkin laughed off Canadian TV analyst Don Cherry's criticism of his exuberant goal celebrations. "He's a funny guy and old guy. He likes old-fashioned hockey," Ovechkin said after scoring his NHL-high 46th goal in Washington's 6-2 loss to Florida. "He's not interesting to me, so he can say whatever he wants. I don't care about him." The league's reigning MVP generally sounded far less upset about the whole thing than Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, who fired back at Cherry. "He's a friend of mine. And he's an idol of mine. I mean, I love what Don Cherry has stood for, for 30 years. I just think that even the smartest people in the world are wrong sometimes, and I just thought he was wrong," Boudreau said. "Because he doesn't know Alex like we know Alex." Cherry was critical of the way Ovechkin reacts when he scores, which can include fist pumps, leg kicks, and facefirst jumps into the glass.

Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Midshipman injured his left front leg and will miss the Kentucky Derby and the rest of the Triple Crown races. The 3-year-old colt owned by Dubai's Sheik Mohammed sustained a "minor soft tissue injury" during a routine exercise at Godolphin's Al Quoz Stables Saturday, Godolpin Racing said on its website. Midshipman, the 2-year-old champion colt and an early Derby favorite, was trained by Bob Baffert last year. The colt was purchased by Sheik Mohammed late last year and sent to Dubai to train for the Derby under Saeed bin Suroor . . . The Oklahoma City Thunder agreed to release veteran forward Joe Smith, setting the stage for him to sign with a playoff contender such as the Cleveland Cavaliers. Smith had been relegated to the bench in Oklahoma City but could be a valuable asset for a team making a playoff push. Rumors have circulated that the Cavaliers would be interested in Smith, particularly after they lost Ben Wallace to a broken leg . . . The Sacramento Kings waived Drew Gooden, freeing the recently acquired forward to join a contending team for a playoff run. Sacramento agreed to an undisclosed buyout of Gooden's $7.1 million salary in the final season of his contract . . . Mardy Fish became the first top seed in the 17-year history of the Delray Beach, Fla., International Tennis Championships to win the title, beating Russian qualifier Evgeny Korolev, 7-5, 6-3 . . . After a scoreless draw, Manchester United won the League Cup with a 4-1 penalty shootout victory over Tottenham in Wembley, England, that kept the English Premier League leaders on course for an unprecedented five trophies this season . . . Scotland and Wales abandoned plans for a joint bid to host the 2016 European Soccer Championships because funding the required infrastructure developments would be tough during the global economic downturn.