Liberec, Czech Republic  - Bill Demong turned from villain to hero with a Nordic combined gold and Justyna Kowalczyk became the queen of cross-country skiing with a second world title on her own at the Nordic skiing world championships on Saturday.

Demong beat Germany's Bjoern Kircheisen for the Nordic combined normal hill crown, two days after he failed to find his bib in the team event which led to his disqualification and ended the US medal hopes.

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Austria lived up to its top billing on Saturday to win a third straight team event ski-jumping world title.

Normal hill world champion Wolfgang Loitzl had the longest jumps of 131 metres and 136m in each round as he won together with Olympic champion Thomas Morgenstern, Martin Koch and World Cup leader Gregor Schlierenzauer with 1,034.3 points.

Norway came second with 1,000.8 points and Japan were surprise third-place finishers with 981.2 points.

Liberec, Czech Republic - Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland had the strongest finish in a 30-kilometres cross-country ski marathon on Saturday to claim her second gold medal at the world championships.

Kowalczyk skied away from her rivals on the final kilometre to add the 30km gold to the pursuit title and 10km bronze.

Kowalczyk clocked 1 hour 16 minutes 10.6 seconds to win from Russian Evgenia Medvedeva (8.8 seconds behind) and Valentina Shevchenko of Ukraine (9.3).

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Jason Lamy Chappuis dominated ski-jumping in difficult conditions on Saturday en route to a possible first Nordic combined world championship title for France.

Lamy Chappuis soared 131 metres to lead from a trio of Finns, World Cup leader Anssi Koivuranta, Lauri Asikainen and Janne Ryynaenen, who all had 127m.

Due to the style points Lamy Chappuis was due to start the 10-kilometres cross-country pursuit at 1415 GMT 26 seconds ahead of Koivuranta, with Asikainen on 28 seconds and Ryynaenen on
36 seconds.

Liberec, Czech Republic - World Cup leader Dario Cologna of Switzerland has withdrawn from Sunday's 50 kilometres cross-country race and leaves the Nordic skiing world championships empty-handed.

The ruling body FIS said in a statement on Saturday that Cologna felt tired and wanted to concentrate on the final World Cup events of the season which run until March 23.

Cologna won the Tour de Ski in January and leads the World Cup with 939 points from Norwegian two-time world champion Petter Northug, who has 736 points.

Liberec, Czech Republic - Petter Northug anchored Norway to a familiar cross-country relay title while Andreas Kuettel was a surprise ski-jumping winner in a snow-marred event at the Nordic skiing world championships on Friday.

Northug used his famed deadly kick against German Axel Teichmann to give Norway a fifth straight relay title, with Finland third.

Kuettel celebrated his biggest career success when he beat German ex-champion Martin Schmitt and Anders Jacobsen of Norway in a large hill competition held in one round as snowfall denied a full second round.