Heather Richardson skates to another title

HEATHER RICHARDSON won her third title in 3 days at the U.S. Long Track Championships, setting a national record in winning the 1,500 meters Sunday in Kearns, Utah. Brian Hansen won the men's race.

Richardson's time of 1 minute, 53.84 seconds at the Utah Olympic Oval lowered the old mark of 1:54.19 set by former Olympian Jennifer Rodriguez in 2009. She won the 500 on Friday with the fastest time in the world this year and claimed the 1,000 on Saturday, setting national records in both races.

"It's just a confidence wave," Richardson said. "My first one carried into the 1,000 and after the 1,000 I said to myself, 'I only have one more race to go,' so today I was just really working on my technique. When you don't worry about that stuff, it just happens."

Hansen won his first 1,500 national title in 1:44.96. Olympian Shani Davis was second at 1:46.55, and Joey Mantia took third in 1:47.13.

The results were a flip-flop of Saturday's 1,000, when Davis won and Hansen finished second.

The meet ends Monday.

Venus Williams and John Isner led the United States to a 2-1 victory over South Africa at the Hopman Cup mixed-team competition in Perth, Australia. Williams rallied to defeat 60th-ranked Chanelle Scheepers, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. After Kevin Anderson beat Isner, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (5), the match came down to mixed doubles. Williams and Isner beat the South Africans, 6-3, 6-2, to clinch victory. On Monday, top-ranked Novak Djokovic and former No. 1 player Ana Ivanovic represent Serbia against the Italian team of Andreas Seppi and Francesca Schiavone. Andrea Petkovic, who retired with a knee injury against Australia on Saturday, withdrewn from the competition with a ruptured meniscus and will miss the Australian Open. She will be replaced by Tatjana Malek for Germany's remaining matches against Italy and Serbia.

* Third-ranked Serena Williams needed less than an hour to beat fellow American Varvara Lepchenko, 6-2, 6-1, in the first round of the Brisbane (Australia) International.

Spanish golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez broke his right shinbone skiing Saturday, had surgery Sunday and will be sidelined for up to 5 months. Jimenez, 48, was a vice captain on Europe's Ryder Cup-winning team in September.

* Former champion Anders Jacobsen, of Norway, mastered tricky wind conditions to win the opening stage of the prestigious Four Hills ski jumping competition in Oberstdorf, Germany. Jacobsen had the top points total in both jumps to win comfortably ahead of defending champion and World Cup leader Gregor Schlierenzauer, of Austria.

* Russia's Maxim Vylegzhanin won the second stage of the Tour de Ski and took the overall lead in the seven-leg World Cup event in Oberhof, Germany. He edged teammate Alexander Legkov in a 15-kilometer classical pursuit. Defending champion Justyna Kowalczyk, of Poland, won the women's 9K pursuit.