Olympic sports
NORWEGIAN SOARS: At the Utah Olympic Park, Amund Johnson of Norway dominated the jumping portion of the FIS World Cup B Nordic combined individual competition Saturday, winning both rounds on the park's 90-meter hill.
Thanks to his superior jumps, Johnson will enjoy a 1-minute, 38-second head start Sunday for the 15K cross country race section of the competition at Soldier Hollow. Johnson landed jumps of 96.5 and 92.5 meters, while his technique earned favorable marks from the judges. In ski jumping, distance and judge marks are combined for an overall score.
The top jumper always goes first in the subsequent ski race. The rest of the field follows him according to each athlete's jump results using what's called the Gundersen handicap method. The first skier to cross the finish line wins the Nordic combined competition.
Michal Psenko of Slovakia placed second Saturday, while Jason Myslicki of Canada and Estonian skier Jens Salumae tied for third.
The top American, John Spilliane, finished eighth and will begin Sunday's cross country race 2:38 behind Johnson. U.S. skier Matt Dayton, who won Friday's sprint event, will again have to make up a substantial amount of time to win the cross country race. Dayton finished 28th Saturday.
Sunday's race begins at 10 a.m.
AMERICANS WIN BOBSLED: Jean Racine of Waterford, Mich., and Jen Davidson of Layton won their third World Cup bobsled event of the 2000-01 season Saturday in Igls, Austria. Thirty-two sleds competed in the contest.
Racine and Davidson were in second place after the first heat, with a time of 54.67, but took over the lead after the second run. The duo beat Sandra Prokoff and Kerstin Jurgens of Germany by .24 seconds in the second heat to win the contest. Their final combined time was 1:50.74, .04 seconds faster than second-place Prokoff and Jurgens.
Bonny Warner of Discovery Bay, Calif., and Vonetta Flowers of Birmingham, Ala., had a fantastic showing, with a superb push time of 5.72 in the second heat, to finish sixth with a time of 1:51.75. Elena Wise of Lyndhurst, N.J., and Kristi McGihon of San Diego, Calif., newcomers to the World Cup circuit, also had one of the fastest push times of the day (5.72) to take seventh place in 1:52.14.
Racine, defending champion, is leading the World Cup in points with 105. Prokoff is second with 97 points.
The women's bobsled team will compete in race two of the World Cup in Igls today.
SKELETON CREW: Tricia Stumpf of Park City, winner of the 2000 U.S. Skeleton Push Championships, captured the bronze in the women's skeleton World Cup competition held in Igls, Austria, Friday. Stumpf's two-run times of 56.70 and 1:01.92 combined for a time of 1:58.62. Her time was only .62 seconds behind the gold-medal winner and defending World Cup champion Alex Coomber of Great Britain.
Coomber's two run times of 56.51 and 1:01.49 combined for a time of 1:58.00 to secure her first-place finish.
Germany's Steffi Hanzlik took the silver medal with a combined time of 1:58.53.
Lea Ann Parsley of Granville, Ohio, placed sixth with a time of 1:59.43, and Babs Isak of Park City finished 13th with a time of 2:00.66.
WITTY SPEEDS TO GOLD: Just three months removed from competing at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Chris Witty of West Allis, Wis., made her 2000-01 speedskating debut by earning a gold medal at the season-opening sprint World Cup competition in Seoul, Korea.
Witty, who placed fifth in the 500-meter time trial cycling event this past September, earned gold in the ladies' 1,000-meters with a time of 1:19.01. The time edged Germany's Monique Garbrecht (1:19.01), who finished with the silver. Japan's Eriko Sanmiya won the bronze (1:19.32).
"I wasn't sure what to expect because of cycling in the Olympics and working my way slowly back into the training program," said Witty, who earned two medals at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games. "So, of course, I was happy with my race."
Tennis
SPAIN CLOSES ON CUP: Spain's 79-year wait for the Davis Cup could be over.
The best tennis country never to have won the silver, double-decked trophy took a 2-1 lead in Barcelona Saturday over defending and 27-time champion Australia as Alex Corretja and Joan Balcells manhandled Sandon Stolle and Mark Woodforde 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Like the deafening sellout crowd of 14,000 at Palau Sant Jordi, history is on Spain's side in the best-of-five-matches competition. In the last 22 Davis Cup finals, the team that won the doubles has claimed the 101-year-old cup. The last time it didn't happen was 1977 when Italy won the doubles but lost the tie to Australia.
On Friday, Lleyton Hewitt defeated Albert Costa 3-6, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a 4-hour, 10-minute marathon before Juan Carlos Ferrero leveled the contest by leading Pat Rafter 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2) 6-2, 3-1 when the Australian retired with cramps.