American wins second straight bobsled race

American bobsledder Steven Holcomb won his second straight four-man World Cup race Sunday at Igls, Austria.

Holcomb and teammates Pavle Jovanovic, Steve Mesler and Brock Kreitzburg – who also won last week’s event in Cortina d’Ampezzo – finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 43.09 seconds.

World Cup leader Evgeni Popov of Russia was second, trailing Holcomb by 0.20 seconds. Germany’s Karl Angerer came in third, 0.74 behind.

Popov leads the World Cup four-man standings with 450 points. Holcomb is second, 70 points behind.

•American Karen Putzer captured a giant slalom at Cortina D’ Ampezzo, Italy, for her first victory since the 2002-03 season. She led both runs and finished in 2 minutes, 46.93 seconds.

Olympic giant slalom champion Julia Mancuso was the runner-up, 0.04 seconds behind, the fifth straight top-three finish for the American.

•Czech ski jumper Jan Mazoch remained unconscious after crashing at a World Cup event in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday.

Doctors were keeping the skier in a medically induced coma and have described his injuries as life-threatening.

•Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy clinched a record 34th career luge World Cup victory in Altenberg, Germany when the event was cut short after the first run because of bad weather.

Tony Benshoof of the United States was third.

•Italy’s Renato Pasini and Arianna Follis won freestyle sprint races for their first cross-country World Cup titles this season at Demino, Russia.

•South Korea’s Lee Kyou-hyuk won the ISU world sprint speedskating championship at Hamar, Norway, edging Finland’s Pekka Koskela in the final 1,000-meter race.

Anni Friesinger of Germany won the women’s event.

Shani Davis of the United States finished third after winning both 1,000-meter races.

•Christoph Sumann of Austria won a men’s biathlon World Cup 15-kilometer mass start race in Pokljuka, Slovenia, while Tim Burke was sixth for the best American finish in a biathlon event in seven years.

•A World Cup men’s super-combi race in Val D’ Isere, France was canceled because of poor weather.

Auto racing

Frenchman wins Rally

French driver Stephane Peterhansel won the 2007 Dakar Rally at Dakar, Senegal, claiming his third trophy in one of the world’s most punishing and dangerous races.

Peterhansel, who also has six motorcycle victories in the tough transcontinental competition, secured the win after finishing a final Atlantic Ocean beach stretch of the 5,411-mile race from Europe to Africa.