In Brief: Shiffrin Storms to Combined World Cup Victory

Crans Montana, Switzerland — A stunning slalom run from Mikaela Shiffrin saw the former Lyme resident clinch a first Alpine combined win on Sunday to extend her advantage in the overall standings.

Shiffrin was seventh after the super-G portion and she knew she could make it up in her favorite discipline.

And so it proved as Shiffrin blew away her rivals on the final third of the course to finish 0.7 seconds above Federica Brignone and 0.85 seconds ahead of Ilka Stuhec, who is the American’s closest challenger for the overall title.

But despite being the Olympic slalom champion and three-time reigning world champion and being on course for a fourth World Cup title in the discipline, the 21-year-old admitted to feeling nervous before the start of her run.

“At the top I was actually a little bit nervous for the slalom and a little bit tired and I was like ‘wake up your legs and go,’” Shiffrin said. “I made this little bit of a mistake on the fourth gate but then from there on out the timing was there and everything was moving forwards.

“It’s part of who I am. It seems when things are more certain for me I get more nervous because I’m sure something’s going to go wrong and there’s more to lose in that sense. It’s better for me to be nervous than not, I don’t take things for granted usually and that ends up giving me wins like this.”

Shiffrin extended her advantage in the overall standings to 300 points over Stuhec, who moved into second, two points ahead of Lara Gut, who is out for the rest of the season with injury.

At Kvitfjell, Norway, Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud secured the men’s World Cup super-G title on home snow as Peter Fill won Sunday’s race.

Italian skier Fill won by 0.1 seconds from Austrian Hannes Reichelt, with third place going to Canadian Erik Guay, 0.23 seconds off the lead.

Reigning Olympic super-G champion Jansrud finished seventh to secure the super-G title with a race to spare as he leads by 126 points from Aleksander Aamodt Kilde with a maximum of 100 points available at the last race next month.

Golf

Fowler Hangs On

Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. — Rickie Fowler made it interesting Sunday for as long as it took him to make two big putts to pull away in the Honda Classic.

Staked to a four-shot lead, Fowler hit one putt into a sprinkler hole, hit a tee shot into the water and watched a big lead shrink to one over Gary Woodland early on the back nine. Fowler answered with consecutive birdie putts of 40 and 25 feet and closed with a 1-over 71 for a four-shot victory.

“If I don’t make those putts, I’ve got a pretty tight race,” Fowler said.

Instead, those chasing him had the biggest problems with the closing stretch at PGA National.

Fowler effectively ended it with a shot over the water to the 3 feet that stretched his lead to five shots with two holes to play. Woodland appeared to have second place wrapped up until he three-putted the 17th, and then tried to lay up on the par-5 18th and came up short into the water. He closed with another bogey for a 69. He had to share second place — the difference of $128,000 — with Morgan Hoffmann, who missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the 18th and setted for a 68.

At Chonburi, Thailand, Amy Yang won the Thailand LPGA for the second time in three years, finishing with a 4-under 68 for a five-stroke victory.

Yang played the final five holes of the third round on Sunday morning, completing a 65 to take a five-stroke advantage into the final round. The South Korean playeer has three LPGA Tour victories.

At Johannesburg, South Africa’s Darren Fichardt won the rain-shortened Joburg Open, closing with a 4-under 68 for a one-stroke victory over Wales’ Stuart Manley and England’s Paul Waring.

Spring Training Baseball

Rays 7, Red Sox 3

At Port Charlotte, Florida, Chris Archer made his spring debut for the Rays and allowed one hit over two scoreless innings.

Tampa Bay’s Joe McCarthy homered, doubled and drove in three runs.

Boston starter Hector Velazquez gave up one run in two innings.

Soccer

Man U Claims Cup

London — Six months into their first seasons at Manchester United, Jose Mourinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have collected their first winners’ medals.

Just how long this partnership of serial winners endures at United remains uncertain.

There’s little doubt Mourinho wants Ibrahimovic to commit to staying at United into next season, especially after the 35-year-old striker’s double clinched the League Cup with a 3-2 victory over Southampton on Sunday.

But Mourinho hopes the supporters will take direct action to persuade the Swede to sign the contract extension the club has offered.

In the day’s only Premier League game, Harry Kane scored a first-half hat trick before setting up Dele Alli’s strike as Tottenham dereated Stoke, 4-0, and moved to second in the standings, 10 points behind Chelsea.