Sunday's sports briefs

Vonn loses slalom and overall lead in crash With the finish and the victory literally in sight, Lindsey Vonn made a costly error.

Burnsville native Vonn, 24, crashed five gates before the finish Sunday on the icy Crveni Spust slalom course in Zagreb, Croatia. The crash almost certainly cost her a victory -- she led by almost a full second at the time -- and the overall lead in the World Cup standings. She was not injured.

Maria Riesch of Germany won her third consecutive slalom, finishing in a combined time of 1 minute, 58.69 seconds, and took the lead in the standings.

"So many things can happen in a second and your day is done," said Vonn, who was skiing aggressively because she wasn't aware of her massive lead over Riesch.

"I wasn't sure about the time while I was skiing," she said. "I heard 'one second' and I thought I was one second behind for sure as I had a mistake at the top. I would have slowed down a bit had I known I was a second ahead."

Riesch has 607 points to lead the overall standings for the first time in her career. Tanja Poutiainen of Finland, who finished seventh, is next with 543, and Vonn is third with 530.

"I didn't ski that great today and Lindsey was the strongest," Riesch said. "I was lucky she went out. Winning was just a present for me."

Nicole Hosp of Austria, the 2007 overall champion, will be out for six weeks after injuring her left knee in a crash during warmups. Hosp broke the upper part of her shinbone and tore ligaments, the Austrian ski federation said. It said surgery will not be needed.

• Bill Demong of Vermontville, N.Y., finished second in a Nordic combined World Cup event in Schonach, Germany. It was his third podium finish of the season and moved him to second in the overall standings behind winner Anssi Koivuranta of Finland.

• John Napier and Bree Schaaf won the U.S. National Bobsled Championships at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y., and qualified for next month's World Championships in Lake Placid.

• Races at the U.S. Cross Country Championship in Anchorage, Alaska, were postponed for the second day in a row by temperatures that neared 11 degrees below zero. The cutoff for running a race is 4 degrees below zero.

U.S. juniors beat Czechs in OT for fifth place New Hampshire star James van Riemsdyk's goal at 2:49 of overtime gave the United States a 3-2 victory over the Czech Republic in the fifth-place game in the world junior hockey championship in Ottawa.

Ondrej Roman gave the Czechs a 2-1 lead with 9:01 left, but University of Minnesota defenseman Cade Fairchild tied it on a power play with 6:58 to go.

Eric Tangradi also scored for the Americans, who were coming off a 5-3 quarterfinal loss to Slovakia after going 3-1 in the preliminary round.

Tonight, four-time defending champion Canada will face Sweden in the championship game. Russia will play Slovakia in the third-place game.

Tizfiz wins by nose in Santa Anita feature Tizfiz beat Marzelline by a nose to capture the 40th running of the $150,000 San Gorgonio Handicap at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.

Under Agapito Delgadillo, Tizfiz ran the 1 1/8-mile turf course in 1:49.62, paying $21, $9.80 and $7.

Paralympics: Nick Scandone, a sailing gold medalist at the Beijing Paralympics and a former U.S. Yachtsman of the Year, died early Friday morning at his home in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a six-year battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was 42.

Boxing: Trinidadian boxing champion Jisselle Salandy died in Port of Spain from injuries sustained in a car crash on the outskirts of the Caribbean country's capital. She was 21. Salandy had a 17-0 record and held WBC, WBA and WIBA championship belts at welterweight.

ASSOCIATED PRESS