SKIING
Petra Vlhova won her third straight women’s World Cup slalom Sunday at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, to overtake the absent Mikaela Shiffrin on the top of the discipline standings.
Vlhova was more than nine-tenths off the lead in fourth place after the first run but posted the fastest time in a free-flowing second.
Vlhova, who also won in Zagreb and Flachau recently and finished on the podium in 13 of the last 15 races, leads the discipline standings by 20 points from Shiffrin.
The American three-time overall champion sat out the race, taking a break from skiing since the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin, two weeks ago.
Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener was 0.24 seconds behind Vlhova in second for her 24th career podium result in slalom without winning a race, a World Cup record. Katharina Truppe of Austria finished third, trailing by 0.89.
LUGE
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: USA Luge won the bronze medal in the team relay, catching a huge break when the host Russians were disqualified from the final event of the competition at Krasnaya Polyana, Russia.
Summer Britcher, Tucker West and the doubles team of Chris Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman were sitting in third place with one team left to slide. That would be Russia, which had Ekaterina Katnikova, Roman Repilov and the doubles team of Aleksandr Denisev, and Vladislav Antonov – all of whom had won world championships earlier in the weekend – entered in the relay.
Katnikova was first down, and before Repilov could begin she needed to smack a touchpad suspended from the top of the chute as she crossed the finish line.
Katinkova reached up a split-second too late, missed the pad entirely and the Russians were disqualified on the spot.
TENNIS
ARGENTINA OPEN: Casper Ruud clinched his first title by beating lucky loser Pedro Sousa 6-1, 6-4 in the final at Buenos Aires.
Ruud didn’t face a break point in his nine service games and broke Sousa three times.
ST PETERSBURG LADIES TROPHY: Kiki Bertens beat Elena Rybakina 6-1, 6-3 to retain the title at St. Petersburg, Russia.
It’s the first title of 2020 for Bertens, who’s eighth in the world rankings. She hit six aces on the way to victory and held serve throughout.
SOCCER
RACISM: The BBC dropped a soccer pundit from broadcasts after he made a racist comment about players at second-tier club Derby.
Craig Ramage, a former Derby midfielder, singled out players he called the “young black lads” for criticism following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Huddersfield on a BBC Radio Derby podcast.
• FC Porto striker Moussa Marega, who tried to walk off the field after being the target of racist slurs from fans, faced apparent attempts by his own teammates and opposition players to prevent him from leaving.
Marega, who is black and from Mali, was visibly angered by monkey noises targeting him after he scored Porto’s second goal in a 2-1 win at Guimaraes in the Portuguese football league.
But when Marega started to walk off the field, several players from both Porto and Guimaraes appeared to argue with him. Porto Coach Sergio Conceicao also went on the field and spoke with Marega.
It took Marega several minutes to leave the field when he was substituted.
Marega held his thumbs down at the crowd as he went into the tunnel to the changing rooms. The crowd responded with loud jeers.
PREMIER LEAGUE: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette scored in the second half at London to give Arsenal a 4-0 victory over Newcastle.
• Son Heung-min scored in stoppage time to give Tottenham a 3-2 victory at Aston Villa to boost its hopes of Champions League qualification.
The South Korea forward cashed in on Bjorn Engels’ stoppage-time error to snatch the victory for Jose Mourinho’s side after Engels’ 53rd-minute header had looked like earning Villa a point in its push against relegation.
Tottenham moved up to fifth place in the standings. Fifth place is now likely to offer a Champions League spot following Manchester City’s two-year European ban.
ITALIAN LEAGUE: Lazio’s hopes of winning a first Serie A trophy in 20 years are very much alive after it came from behind to beat title rival Inter Milan 2-1.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored the winner in the 69th minute.
Lazio moved into second, a point behind Juventus, which beat 10-man Brescia 2-0 earlier in the day. Inter slipped into third, three points behind eight-time defending champion Juventus.
SPANISH LEAGUE: Real Madrid was held to a 2-2 draw at home by Celta Vigo in the first match in nearly three months for Belgium forward Eden Hazard.
Hazard, who started the game and earned a penalty, hadn’t played since injuring his right ankle on Nov. 26 against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. He had been practicing with the rest of the team for the last two weeks but had yet to be included in the squad.
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