Whistler, British Columbia - The German team trounced the field Saturday at the final women's 4x6-kilometre relay of the biathlon World Cup season to earn the this winter's title.

It was the second victory of the season for the Germans. Defending champions Russia were third on Saturday.

Magdalena Neuner and Andrea Henkel shot perfectly, while Kati Wilhelm missed once and Martina Beck used five extra rounds, good enough as a team to avoid the penalty loop.

Madrid - Real Madrid are now just three points behind Spanish leaders Barcelona after a stormy 5-2 win Saturday at Athletic Bilbao.

It was the perfect way for the whites to recover from Tuesday's 4- 0 Champions League meltdown at Liverpool.

Real now have 60 points from 27 games, just three points less than Barcelona, who play Sunday at midtable Almeria.

Two second-half goals from Klaas Jan Huntelaar, who was ineligible to play against Liverpool, tipped the balance in Real's favour after Bilbao had pulled two goals back.

Indian Wells, California  - Exhausted Elena Dementieva, winner of her first 15 matches this season, hit the wall as she crashed out to Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-7 (2-7), 6-2, 6-1 Saturday at the Indian Wells Masters.

"I shouldn't have come here because I didn't have enough time to recover after playing so many matches in the beginning of the year," said the Russian Olympic gold medallist. "I just needed a much longer break to get ready to play at my best."

Vikersund, Norway  - World champions Austria overcame Finland Saturday to claim victory in a team ski-flying event in Vikersund.

The team of Martin Koch, Wolfgang Loitzl, Thomas Morgenstern and World Cup leader Gregor Schlierenzauer won with a combined total of 1543.5 points with Koch setting a large hill record of 216.5 metres in the first round.

However, Koch's record didn't last long as Harri Olli improved the mark in the second round with a jump of 219m to help Finland and team-mates Matto Hautamaki, Kalle Keituri and Ville Larinto to a total of 1,499 points.

London - Liverpool breathed fresh life into their title hopes with a stunning 4-1 win at Old Trafford over 10-man Manchester United.

Goals from Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Fabio Aurelio, and Andrea Dossena saw the visitors follow up their superb midweek victory over Real Madrid.

They move into second place, on 61 points, and have closed the gap on the champions to four points, though United still have a game in hand.

Vikersund, Norway - Anssi Koivuranta of Finland all but assured himself of the World Cup title in Nordic combined skiing on Saturday when he won the penultimate competition of the season.

Koivuranta dominated the ski-jumping round and then cruised to his seventh season victory in 26 minutes 3.9 seconds for the 10- kilometres cross-country pursuit.

World champion Bill Demong of the United States came second 6.5 points behind the winner and Norway's Magnus Moan was third, 13.2 seconds off the pace.