Winter Sports - Vonn Wins Fifth Straight Downhill Title Lindsey Vonn clinched her fifth consecutive World Cup downhill title Saturday after placing third in a race on the 2014 Sochi Olympics course in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. Maria Höfl-Riesch of Germany placed first with a time of 1 minute 49.17 seconds down the Rosa Khutor slope for her second victory this season and first in downhill. She beat Elisabeth Görgl of Austria by 0.43 and Vonn by 0.59. With two downhills remaining this season and wins worth 100 points each, Vonn holds an unassailable 231-point lead over Höfl-Riesch in the discipline standings. "Downhill is my favorite event, and it's always nice to wrap up a title before the end of the season, before the last races," Vonn said. It puts a little less pressure on me. Höfl-Riesch also had a win in a test event for the 2010 Vancouver Games. "It's really important," she said. "In Whistler, two years before the Olympics, I won the super combined," and she did well in the downhill, "and I won two gold medals two years later. But it's never a guarantee, it's just good to know you can be fast on a special track where a big event takes place. Vonn has an even bigger lead in the overall standings, where she is 448 points ahead of Slovenia's Tina Maze and 486 points in front of Höfl-Riesch, who ended Vonn's run of three consecutive overall titles last season. The start of the race was delayed by 15 minutes as organizers cleared overnight snowfall off the course, and there were a few more delays once it started due to clouds moving over the course, limiting visibility. Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein finished fourth, Marion Rolland of France was fifth and Julia Mancuso of the United States was sixth. Also, Stacey Cook finished ninth and Alice McKennis was 10th as the United States placed four racers in the top 10 for one of its best overall results. Nadja Kamer of Switzerland and Lotte Smiseth Sejersted of Norway crashed, but both appeared to avoid serious injury. For the men's races last week, the stands were only half full, although those that were in attendance were enthusiastic, singing and cheering on each finisher. Vonn started after a television break and executed well on the upper part of the course but lost some time on the bottom, and her lead only lasted slightly more than a minute because Höfl-Riesch skied next and was faster than Vonn at each checkpoint. "I may have been a little cautious on the top, because the coaches were saying outside the track was really soft, so I tried to stay a little bit above the line but I think maybe that wasn't the fastest line," Vonn said. Upon seeing her result, Höfl-Riesch dropped down on her back in the snow and pumped her arms and kicked her feet to celebrate. A bit later, Görgl knocked Vonn down to third. LIGETY LOSES GROUND Marcel Hirscher took advantage of a mistake by his rival Ted Ligety to win a World Cup giant slalom in Bansko, Bulgaria, and overtook Ligety for first place in the discipline standings. Ligety, an American, led after the first run but dropped out of contention in the second run with a mistake in the upper part of the slope and placed last of the 27 finishers. Hirscher, who began the second run trailing Ligety by 0.16, clinched the victory with a combined time of 2:25.35. KEARNEY TAKES MOGULS AGAIN Hannah Kearney of the United States earned her 16th straight World Cup moguls victory. Kearney edged Canada's Audrey Robichaud in the final in Naeba, Japan. Justine Dufour-Lapointe of Canada was third. Last Sunday, Kearney won in China to break the all-discipline record for most consecutive World Cup victories held by Ingemar Stenmark. Canada's Mikael Kingsbury won the men's event for his eighth victory of the season. Jeremy Cota of the United States was second. NESBITT SKATES TO VICTORY The World Cup overall leader Christine Nesbitt of Canada won the women's 500 meter race, and Zbigniew Brodka of Poland was the winner of the men's sprint to take early leads at the world allround speedskating championships. Nesbitt finished in 38.30 seconds at the Krylatskoye Ice Stadium oval in Moscow. Yekaterina Lobysheva of Russia was second, 0.65 behind, and Ireen Wust of the Netherlands finished third, 1.07 back. Brodka was timed at 36.24, just two-hundredths of a second ahead of Koen Verweij of the Netherlands.