Maier turns back the clock in super-G

Austria's Hermann Maier scored his first World Cup win in almost three years with victory in a super-G at Lake Louise, Alberta, yesterday. The Austrian, who turns 36 next week, clocked 1 minute 29.84 seconds to bag his 54th World Cup victory, his fourth in a super-G in the Canadian resort. Maier, the four-time World Cup overall winner, had been lackluster the last two seasons with only two podium placings and his last victory dated back to January 2006, when he won a downhill in Garmisch, Germany. But in a race in which favorite Bode Miller lost a ski and crashed out, Maier was back to his exceptional best, ending up the only skier under the 90-second barrier. "Today I showed I was right to go on with my career. I expected it to come because I was so strong in training in the summer," Maier said. Calgary's John Kucera, winner of a super-G on the same course two years ago, had to settle for second, .59 seconds behind. Miller made a perfect start, leading Maier by .2 seconds at the first intermediate time, but he lost a ski and crashed out of contention before the halfway mark . . . Bill Demong of Vermontville, N.Y., and Johnny Spillane of Steamboat Springs, Colo., put the hammer down in the cross-country portion of their competition, finishing first and third in the race, and 13th and 14th for the day in a Nordic combined World Cup event in Kuusamo, Finland. Also in Kuusamo, Kris Freeman (Andover, N.H.) finished in 38:44, pulling within one minute of the leader, to finish 16th in a World Cup 15K race. In the women's 10K, Kikkan Randall (Anchorage) finished 23d in 29:48 . . . Sarka Zahrobska got her first World Cup victory, taking the slalom in a combined time of 1:39.32 to beat Nicole Hosp by .23 seconds in blustery, icy conditions in Aspen, Colo. Lindsey Vonn was the top American, taking fourth in 1:40.73, Julia Mancuso was disqualified after missing a gate near the end of the first run.

Annika Sorenstam celebrated two big victories in her second-to-last event before retiring. In the Lexus Cup in Singapore, the International team captain waited out a lightning delay to finish off Asian counterpart Se Ri Pak, 3 and 2, in the opening singles match, the longtime stars' first match-play showdown. A couple of hours later, American Christina Kim gave Sorenstam an even bigger victory, finishing with a birdie on the par-5 18th against Namika Omata to hand Sorenstam's International team a 12 1/2-11 1/2 victory in the three-day event. "It's one thing to be inside the ropes in control, but when you're cheering for everyone you want to help them however you can," said Sorenstam, who is set to end her Hall of Fame career next week in the Ladies European Tour's Dubai Ladies Masters. "I kept getting goose bumps after goose bumps out there. I was really into it. I'm really proud of this team for trying so hard. I could not have asked for a better ending." . . . K.J. Choi holed an 11-foot birdie putt worth $270,000 on the 18th hole to win the 26th Skins Game with $415,000 in Indian Wells, Calif. Stephen Ames missed a 9-footer that would have tied the hole and forced the foursome, including Phil Mickelson and Rocco Mediate, into a playoff. Instead, Choi's putt gave him $340,000 for yesterday's nine holes and made him the fifth international player to win the title. Ames, looking for a third consecutive title in the event, won $250,000 on the first hole of the day with a birdie. Mickelson was third with $195,000, while Mediate earned his $140,000 with a birdie on the 16th hole . . . Rod Pampling won the Australian Masters, beating Marcus Fraser with a par on the third playoff hole in Melbourne. Pampling closed with a 5-under 67 to match Fraser (65) at 12-under 276.

With the first training camp of his comeback set to start, Lance Armstrong guaranteed the drug-testing program he arranged will be in place by the time he rides in his first official race. The seven-time Tour de France winner starts training with his new team today without having subjected himself to drug tests by the expert he teamed with, Don Catlin, and with no deal in place to post results of those tests online. But in an interview with the Associated Press, Armstrong said the goal was to have the program in place by the time he rides in Australia in January. "It's a tough thing to organize, but we will make it happen," Armstrong said. . . . . The Dallas Stars acquired defenseman Andrew Hutchinson from Tampa Bay, trading away the rights to winger Lauri Tukonen, who plays for Lukko Rauma in the Finnish Elite League . . . The Los Angeles Kings assigned BC product Brian Boyle to Manchester (AHL) . . . In AHL action, Brad Marchand knocked home a rebound at 3:33 of overtime and Tuukka Rask made 29 saves as the Providence Bruins defeated the visiting Hartford Wolf Pack, 4-3.

For the second time in three years, Virginia has declined to add a year to football coach Al Groh's contract under a rollover clause. "Coach Groh has three years remaining on his current contract," athletic director Craig Littlepage said in a statement. Groh's status has been a topic for the past three seasons, two of which ended in 5-7 records and with Virginia out of a bowl. The exception was last season, when the Cavaliers went 9-4 and lost in the Gator Bowl. In eight seasons since leaving as coach of the New York Jets to return to his alma mater, Groh is 56-44 and 34-30 in Atlantic Coast Conference games with five bowl appearances . . . Japan's Nobunari Oda capped a successful return to competitive skating with a victory in the NHK Trophy in Tokyo. Oda, who was making a return to the Grand Prix series after a one-year suspension following an arrest for drunken driving, overcame several mistakes in his free skate to finish with 236.18 points. Johnny Weir was second with 224.42 points . . . Ethiopian star Haile Gebrselassie won the inaugural 15-kilometer Great Australian Run in 42 minutes 40 seconds in Melbourne. Olympic marathon silver medalist Catherine Ndereba of Kenya won the women's race in 50:43.