Germans sweep top 3 places in luge World Cup

Natalie Geisenberger earned her 12th career win, leaving behind teammates Anke Wischnewski (by 0.123 seconds) and Corinna Martini (0.356)

Jens Meyer/AP

ALTENBERG, Germany (AP) -- Olympic bronze medalist Natalie Geisenberger led a German sweep in a luge World Cup event Saturday.

Geisenberger earned her 12th career win, leaving behind teammates Anke Wischnewski (by 0.123 seconds) and Corinna Martini (0.356) in second and third. She leads the overall standings.

Tatjana Huefner, Olympic and four-time world champion and World Cup titleholder, was fifth behind Alex Gough of Canada.

Americans Erin Hamlin and Emily Sweeney finished seventh and 10th, respectively.

"I had two solid runs, but a few things need to be improved," said Hamlin, the 2009 World Champion and two-time Olympian. "The lines were good. It was a very big improvement from the last couple of weeks. It felt good to have a solid race."

The men's doubles also went to Germans, with Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt winning their 13th World Cup event with course records in each of the their runs.

Austria's Peter Penz and Georg Fischler were second, ahead of Germany's Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken.

The American team of Jake Hyrns and Andrew Sherk finished 12th, followed by teammates Matt Mortensen and Preston Griffall.

Hefti of Switzerland wins 2-man bobsled

WINTERBERG, Germany (AP) -- Titleholder Beat Hefti of Switzerland returned to the bobsled World Cup circuit and won his first race of the season by dominating a two-man event on Saturday.

Hefti missed the first three races in North America because his usual brakemen were injured. He and Thomas Lamparter beat Alexsandr Zubkov of Russia and his brakeman Dmitry Trunenkov by a half second. Lyndon Rush and Jesse Lumsden of Canada came in third 0.40 seconds back.

Steven Holcomb of the United States, who won all three of the North American races, finished fifth with brakeman Curtis Tomasevicz.

Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries of Canada won her sixth consecutive race going back to last season pushed by brakewoman Chelsea Valois. Elana Meyers of the United States was second with Katie Eberling, 0.10 seconds behind.

Fak, Solemdal claim biathlon pursuit events

HOCHFILZEN, Austria (AP) -- Jakov Fak of Slovenia won a World Cup 12.5-kilometer pursuit Saturday for his first career victory.

Fak missed two targets before edging out Dmitry Malyshko of Russia by 0.9 of a second. Defending overall champion Martin Fourcade of France missed three times and finished third.

Fourcade retains the lead of both the pursuit and overall standings.

In the women's 10-kilometer pursuit, Synnoeve Solemdal led Tora Berger for a Norwegian 1-2 finish. Solemdal earned her first win in an individual World Cup event.

She missed one target and finished 30.4 seconds ahead of Berger, who had two penalties. Kaisa Makarainen of Finland was third.

Berger leads the discipline and overall standings ahead of Darya Domracheva of Belarus, who was fifth in the pursuit.

U.S. men's team wins snowboard event in Austria

MONTAFON, Austria (AP) -- The United States and Austria won the inaugural team snowboard events, while defending women's World Cup champion Dominique Maltais of Canada won the first snowboard cross of the season on Saturday.

Americans Hagen Kearney and Nate Holland won the team event, which was part of a World Cup snowboard meet for the first time.

They defeated Italy's Luca Matteotti and Omar Visintin in the final, while Alessandro Haemmerle and Markus Schairer of Austria finished third.

Maltais topped Raffaella Brutto of Italy, Belle Brockhoff of Australia and Nelly Moenne Loccoz of France in the final on the Seebliga course for her eighth career victory.

Austria's Maria Ramberger and Susanne Moll won the women's team event ahead of Claire Chapotot and Lorelei Schmitt of France, while another French team of Nelly Moenne Loccoz and Chloe Trespeuch finished third.

The snowboard World Cup moves next week to Telluride, Colo.

South Koreans dominate at short-track speedskating

SHANGHAI (AP) -- South Koreans Kwak Yoon-gy and Park Seung-hi won 1,000-meter races in World Cup short-track speedskating on Saturday.

Kwak won the men's 1,000 race with a time of 1 minute, 27.028 seconds to finish 0.170 seconds ahead of Liang Wenhao of China. Niels Kerstholt of the Netherlands was third in 1:27.241.

Park won the women's race with a time of 1:30.454, edging China's Wang Meng by just 0.13 seconds. World Cup leader Elise Christie of Britain was third in 1:30.582.

Russia's Victor An won the men's 1,500 meters with a time of 2:17.736 ahead of South Korean Noh Jin-kyu, who clocked a time of 2:18.043. Canada's Guillaume Bastille was third in 2:19.592.

The men's and women's 500-meter races will be held on Sunday.

Koskela takes two speedskating races in Japan

NAGANO, Japan (AP) -- Pekka Koskela of Finland won both the 500 and 1,000-meter races Saturday at a speedskating World Cup event.

Koskela clocked 34.64 seconds in the 500 to finish 0.31 seconds ahead of Michel Mulder of the Netherlands. Tucker Fredricks of the United States was third with a time of 35.10.

Koskela won his second title of the day with a time of 1:09.52 in the 1,000 meters to finish 0.17 seconds ahead of Germany's Samuel Schwarz. Lee Kyou-hyuk of South Korea was third in 1:09.85.

South Korea's Lee Sang-hwa won the women's 500 with a time of 37.63, 0.33 seconds ahead of Nao Kodaira of Japan, who had a time of 37.96. Heather Richardson of the U.S. finished third in 38.70.