Vonn takes 2nd women's World Cup overall title

ARE, Sweden – Lindsey Vonn became the first American woman to win two World Cup overall titles after her victory Wednesday in the last downhill of the season.

The American completed the 1.6-mile Olympia course at the World Cup finals in 1 minute, 42.49 seconds after posting the fastest splits all the way down.

"It's amazing," Vonn said. "It's been a long season and it's been really difficult and challenging, but I'm really happy that it's over."

She needed at least an eighth-place finish to win the title again.

"Winning the overall a second time it's huge," Vonn said. "No American female has ever done that so it means a lot."

Maria Riesch of Germany was second in 1:42.89 and also finished second overall.

Austrian veteran Renate Goetschl, a five-time winner at Are, placed third in 1:44.39.

With three races left at the finals, Vonn has an insurmountable lead in the overall standings with 1,688 points. Riesch is second with 1,299 and Anja Paerson of Sweden third with 990.

A double gold medalist a last month's world championships, Vonn also has a chance to win the super-G title, trailing Fabienne Suter of Switzerland by only 15 points. The last super-G is Thursday.

Vonn had already clinched the downhill title for the second straight year, matching hero and friend Picabo Street's consecutive titles in 1995 and '96.

Vonn topped the final downhill standings with 502 points. She won two downhills this season and earned points in the remaining five races.

Andrea Fischbacher of Austria and Riesch were, respectively, second and third with 326 and 292 points.

"I couldn't asked for anything more," Vonn said. "I'm really, really happy."

Paerson flopped badly as she returned for the first time to the hill where she won the downhill, super-G golds at the 2007 worlds.

She started fast, but lost pace at the bottom, winding up 16th of 24 finishers, 2.38 seconds behind Vonn.

"I made mistakes where I shouldn't have made them and after that it was impossible to catch up," she said.

The race was held in snowy conditions with fog at the top of the course.

South Africa may host Champions Trophy: ICC

South Africa may replace Sri Lanka as the venue of the Champions Trophy tournament later this year, the International Cricket Council said on Wednesday.

A teleconference between members of the ICC's chief executives' committee, comprising representatives of the 10 Test nations, concluded that South Africa would provide better weather conditions than Sri Lanka in September-October.

A final decision on the twice-postponed tournament, the second biggest after the World Cup, will be taken by the ICC's Executive Board in Dubai on Monday.

The committee recommended the tournament be switched to South Africa because "it was felt that it would be too great a risk to stage the tournament in Colombo at a time of year when there was a distinct possibility of rain," ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said in a statement.

"This was especially relevant given the length of this year's Champions Trophy has been reduced to 12 days, part of our desire to make it a short, sharp event, as on that basis there would be no room for reserve days.

"South Africa was a successful and excellent host of the ICC World Twenty20 at much the same time of year two years ago and the weather pattern in the area around Johannesburg in September and October is stable and ideal for cricket.

"The meeting therefore agreed it would be prudent to look to hold the tournament in South Africa, subject to agreement over financial arrangements."

The eight-nation tournament was originally scheduled to be held in Pakistan last year, but was put off by a year and then taken away from the strife-torn nation due to security concerns.

The teleconference came just over a week after a deadly attack on the Sri Lanka team in the Pakistani city of Lahore that killed eight people and injured seven Sri Lankan players and their assistant coach.

Sri Lanka, the original reserve venue, was also thrown in doubt due to the seasonal wet weather in the months of September and October when the tournament is due to be held.

The previous Champions Trophy was held in India in 2006 and won by Australia.