La Molina, Spain - Tanja Poutiainen of Finland claimed her first alpine skiing season victory in a giant slalom on Saturday and with it moved on top of the World Cup standings - profiting from crashes.

Placed fourth after the first run, Poutiainen clocked a combined total of 2 minutes 16.76 seconds from both runs as she pipped Italy's Manuela Moelgg by two hundredths of a second for her eighth career victory.

Moelgg clocked 2:16.78 and Nicole Hosp of Austria was third in 2:17.41 minutes in the Pyrenees resort of La Molina which saw its first World Cup race.

Davos, Switzerland - World Cup champion Virpi Kuitunen got her first cross-country skiing season victory on Saturday in a Finnish one-two ahead of season leader Aino Kaisa Saarinen.

Kuitunen, 32, won the women's 10-kilometre classic style race in Davos in 29 minutes 51.0 seconds. It was the 19th career win for the 2007 and 2008 World Cup champion.

Saarinen led early on but eventually trailed by 18.0 seconds in second place. Former World Cup winner Marit Bjoergen of Norway was third on the podium, 46.7 seconds behind the winner.

The consistent Saarinen tops the World Cup with 365 points from five races, where she made the podium four times with one win, two second places and one third-place finish.

Hochfilzen, Austria - Emil Hegle Svendsen won the men's 12.5-kilometre biathlon pursuit on Saturday to register a third victory of the season and extend his lead in the World Cup standings.

The 23-year-old Norwegian, who also won Friday's sprint, claimed victory in a time of 45 minutes, 46.32 seconds, despite missing three times on the shooting range in Hochfilzen.

Compatriot Ole Einar Bjoerndalen finished second, 9.3 seconds behind Svendsen after missing two targets. Poland's Tomasz Sikora, who like Svendsen missed three targets, was third, 12.0 seconds off the pace.

Melbourne - Reigning Australian Open junior champion Bernard Tomic faces pressure to keep his family in check after an on-court incident which resulted in an apology on Saturday from his over- wrought father.

John Tomic was hammered in the local press after yanking his son off court during a minor event near Perth earlier this month, complaining that foot faults against an opponent were not being called.

The incident provoked an International Tennis Federation Investigation and could result in the youngster not being able to play in the Australia open, which start on January
19.

It also brought back nightmares of the template for poor tennis parents, Serbian bad dad Damir Dokic, now estranged from his daughter Jelena.

Melbourne, Dec 13 : Western Australia and Victoria believe that they have missed out on a minimum of 600,000 Australian dollars and will ask Cricket Australia for compensation following the cancellation of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 tournament in India.

Tournament officials decided on Friday not to stage the event, which was cancelled due to the Mumbai terrorist attacks. The tournament will now be held in October 2009.

Perth, Dec. 13 : South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher on Saturday became the fifth member of the team to go down with an injury.

Boucher made 13 runs in South Africa''s 8-320 on the opening day of their two-day game against a Western Australia second XI in Perth, could not take the field on Saturday because of a "mild ankle sprain", the Herald Sun reports.

Boucher, however, will be available for the first Test that begins next Wednesday.

Test No. 6 batsman AB De Villiers, who scored a brilliant 129 on Friday, stood in for Boucher and took two neat catches behind the stumps off Dale Steyn''s bowling.