Whistler, Canada - Emil Joensson of Sweden and Slovakia's Alena Prochazkova on Friday won cross-country ski sprint races on the slopes to be used at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Joensson dominated the 1.6-kilometre race in the classic style in 3 minutes 37.4 seconds for his second career victory. Three-time season winner Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway had to settle for second and Ivan Ivanov of Russia was third.

Prochazkova got her first career World Cup in the women's race over 1.3km in 3:13.9 minutes from Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland and Sweden's Anna Olsson.

Vancouver  - Cross-country and Nordic combined skiers on Friday started their World Cup events in the Olympic venues in Whistler, on the eve of British Columbia legislators' emergency session to discuss the financing of athletes' accomodation for the 2010 Games.

Also on Friday, Vancouver's deputy manager for the budget-plagued Olympic Village, Jody Andrews, resigned over the issue which has been dubbed the Olympic Village "fiasco" and "scandal."

Stuttgart  - World motorsport supremo Max Mosley on Friday spoke out in favour of an identical budget for all Formula One teams.

"Nothing is more fair than having all teams competing with the same budget," the FIA president Mosley told the website of German auto, motor und sport magazine.

"I reminded the teams that this measure would solve all problems at once."

Madrid  - Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon on Friday officially resigned over an affair involving unqualified delegates at the club's last board meeting.

Calderon made the announcement at a news conference at Real's Bernabeu stadium, confirming news reports from earlier in the day.

Vice-president Vicente Boluda will take over as interim president until elections can be organized.

Zakopane, Poland  - Four Hills champion Wolfgang Loitzl led an Austrian one-tow finish from Gregor Schlierenzauer in a large hill World Cup ski-jumping event on Friday.

Loitzl, 29, soared the longest distance in each round with 129.5 metres and 132m for a winning total of 272.7 points for his fourth career victory. He got his first three wins en route to the Four Hills title less than two weeks ago.

La Rioja, Argentina  - A total of 219 participants have retired from the 2009 Dakar Rally and 1,225 kilometres of racing had to be scrapped, organizers said Friday.

The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) - in charge of the rally which takes place in Argentina and Chile - on Friday called off 324 kilometres of the stage that was originally set to take participants from La Rioja to Cordoba, in Argentina.