ETC.
Finland’s Osku Palermaa became the first international player and first two-handed-style bowler to win the Professional Bowlers Association World Championship, beating Ryan Shafer, 203-177, in the first major championship of the season in Las Vegas. … New Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer has dismissed defensive backs Dominic Clarke and DerJuan Gambrell for off-the-field problems. … Arsenal’s hopes of challenging for the English Premier League title took what could be a decisive blow with a 3-2 loss at newcomer Swansea. … With the NHL season just past its midpoint, seven of the league’s 30 teams have already fired their coach. … Janet Evans qualified for the Olympic trials in the 800-meter freestyle in Austin, Texas, her second qualifying time in two days since coming out of retirement.
McClatchy news services
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A prison inmate who accused a former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach of sexually molesting him more than 40 years ago admits he made up the claim.
The accuser, Floyd VanHooser, says in a letter that he lied to police and in December interviews with The Associated Press and The Post-Standard newspaper of Syracuse. He says he wanted to get back at the coach, Bernie Fine, because he did not hire a lawyer to help VanHooser fight a criminal conviction.
Fine had helped raise the 56-year-old VanHooser.
Two other men accused Fine late last year of abusing them as children, but the statute of limitations has expired. Fine was fired after they came forward.
The newspaper received two copies of the letter Thursday.
McClatchy news services
Loch finished two runs in 1 minute, 28.042 seconds for his fourth win of the season in five events. David Moeller (1:28.251) was second and Andi Langenhan (1:28.331) was third.
TAUPLITZ, Austria (AP) — Robert Kranjec of Slovenia won the first of two competitions at a World Cup ski flying meet on Sunday.
Kranjec gained 212.5 points for his 206-meter jump to land his third career victory ahead of Thomas Morgenstern of Austria with 206.8 points and Anders Bardal of Norway with 201.6.
Andreas Kofler of Austria finished 14th and remained at the top of the overall World Cup standings.
The shortened one-round competition replaced the event that was canceled because of strong wind and snowfall on Saturday.
A regular two-round competition was scheduled for later Sunday.
CHAUX-NEUVE, France (AP) — Alessandro Pittin of Italy won his third straight Nordic combined World Cup event Sunday to narrow the gap with Jason Lamy Chappuis of France in the overall standings.
Pittin broke away during the second lap of the 10-kilometer cross-country race to finish in 22 minutes, 18.1 seconds. Norwegian skiers Joergen Graabak and Mikko Kokslien finished second and third.
Lamy Chappuis only finished 25th but still leads the overall standings with 756 points, followed by Pittin with 648 and Akito Watabe of Japan with 528.
Tino Edelmann of Germany leaped 118 meters to lead after the ski jump, but Pittin had caught up to him by the first checkpoint and built a 26-second lead at the halfway point.
KOENIGSSEE, Germany (AP) — Alexsandr Zubkov of Russia steered his four-man bobsled to his third World Cup win of the season on Sunday, defeating world champion Manuel Machata of Germany by 0.02 seconds on his home track.
Zubkov had the fastest time in the first heat and tied with the Germans in the second run to win in a combined time of 1 minute, 38.05 seconds. Another German crew piloted by Maximilian Arndt was 0.14 seconds back in third.
Zubkov also leads the season standings after five of eight races with 1,054 points. Arndt is second at 979 and Machata is third with 963. A win is worth 225 points.
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LIMA, Peru (AP) — Frenchmen Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres won the Dakar Rally on Sunday, completing the final stage two weeks after the race began in Argentina.
Peterhansel won Dakar for a record-10th time and Despres added his fourth title.
The final special stage was only 18 miles and both leaders took it easy on the last day. Peterhansel in the cars category and Despres in the motorbikes nearly wrapped up the title on Saturday, needing to avoid a major catastrophe to climb the podium.
MILAN (AP) — Ida Ingemarsdotter led Sweden to victory Sunday in the cross-country World Cup team sprint.
Ingemarsdotter won the individual event on Saturday and completed an impressive double when she broke free on the last lap to claim victory along with Hanna Brodin in 16 minutes, 14.7 seconds.
Jessica Diggins and Kikkan Randall of the United States were second, with Canadian duo Perianne Jones and Chandra Crawford third.
Russian duo Alexey Petukhov, Nikolay Morilov beat Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson and Teodor Peterson in the men’s event by 0.2 seconds. Italian duo David Hofer and Fulvio Scola finished third.
WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) — Ivica Kostelic proved the master of Wengen yet again Sunday, winning a World Cup slalom to close the gap on overall standings leader Marcel Hirscher.
Kostelic was almost flawless in the second run to finish 0.85 seconds ahead of Andre Myhrer of Sweden. Fritz Dopfer of Germany was third.
The 32-year-old Croatian has won five of the last seven World Cup events raced at the storied Swiss venue since January 2010.
Kostelic’s 22nd career World Cup victory was his third straight in the Wengen slalom, and cut Hirscher’s lead to 30 points.
Hirscher was disqualified after being fastest in the first run because he straddled a gate.
The Austrian had been unbeaten in 2012, winning his last three races.
