Olympic Times – Sports Daily

икони цениAlissa Czisny edged Italy’s Carolina Kostner by 0.13 points to win the women’s title at Skate America on Sunday even though the American fell on one of her seven triple jumps.

Czisny totalled 177.48 points in her first appearance at the event since 2005, when she finished second. She won the short program Saturday by nearly four points over Kostner.

Kostner, third last year, took the silver at 177.35.

Viktoria Helgesson of Sweden, fifth after the short, earned the bronze at 145.75. Skating to Sunset Boulevard, she fell on a triple lutz, skipped a triple flip and touched a hand down on a triple salchow.

Skating last to a dour classical piece, Czisny packed her program with seven triples, which along with Ksenia Makarova of Russia, was the most of any woman. The American opened with a triple-triple combination before falling on her second jump, a triple flip.

Two of Czisny’s other triples weren’t perfect either, while Kostner tossed in some extra jumps and her routine to Mozart won the free skate.

American Caroline Zhang, third after the short, had a disastrous outing, falling three times to end up sixth. She stumbled out of her opening triple, giving her no chance to complete the combination with a double toeloop.

Czisny edges Kostner for women's gold

From: http://www.cbc.caikoni

The International Figure Skating Union’s Grand Prix Series enters its 15th season this weekend with its first event: The Trophee Eric Bompard Cachemire, in Paris. Competition starts Friday in competition, the first of six that will lead up to the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo in December and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. It will feature some interesting storylines.

Ladies’ Singles

Carolina Kostner

This event has perhaps the most stacked ladies’ field of the Grand Prix season. Two of figure skating’s greatest rivals will meet in this event as Korean World Champion Kim Yu-Na and 2008 World Champion and faces Grand Prix Final champ Mao Asada of Japan.

Kim, who has been training with Brian Orser in Toronto, blew away the field at the worlds in Los Angeles with a record score. She will show off new programs choreographed by David Wilson – George Gershwin’s “Piano Concerto in F Major” in the long program and a short program to a medley of music from “James Bond 007″, considered unusual music for figure skating.

The archrivals will also be joined by Italy’s Carolina Kostner, but the hotly-anticipated comeback of American Sasha Cohen has been iced as the 2006 Olympic silver medallist who is making a comeback, has pulled out of the competition after suffering an injured calf in practice. Japan’s Yukari Nakano and Caroline Zhang of the U.S. may also challenge. There are no Canadian women in this event.

Entries: Mao Asada (Japan), Candice Didier (France), Sasha Cohen, United States, Gwendoline Didier (France), Elene Gedevanishvili, (Georgia), Alexe Gilles (USA), Yu-Na Kim (South Korea), Kiira Korpi (Finland), Carolina Kostner (Italy), Yukari Nakano (Japan), Caroline Zhang (USA), Anna Jurkiewicz (Poland)

Men’s Singles

Brian Joubert, the 2007 world champion from France, launches his season in front of his home fans and will no doubt be trying to vindicate himself after finishing with what he considered a disappointing bronze medal at the 2009 Worlds.

A five-time world medallist known for his big jumps, Joubert is likely to be challenged in Paris by Nobunari Oda. The Japanese skater is in top form, winning last year’s NHK Trophy, after being banned for three months by his national federation in 2007 for drunk driving. Russia’s Sergei Voronov and Tomáš Verner of Czech Republic will also be in the running for spots on the podium. Vaughn Chipeur is the only Canadian man in the event as he begins his quest for the nation’s second spot at the Olympics.

Entries: Vaughn Chipeur (Canada), Chao Yang (China), Tomas Verner (Czech Republic), Brian Joubert (France), Yannick Ponsero (France), Alban Preaubert (France), Peter Liebers (Germany), Nobunari Oda (Japan), Sergei Voronov (Russia), Javier Fernandez (Spain), Ryan Bradley (USA), Adam Rippon (USA)

Pairs

Canadians Bryce Davison and Jessica Dubé will face the world’s finest pairs competition right off the bat in Paris when they return to the romantic style of skating that so suited them before their experimental season last year. They will meet world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, the reigning world champs. It’s the first of two meetings between the two teams during this Grand Prix season. The second will be at Skate Canada in Kitchener, Ont., in late November.

Russians Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov, coached by Olympic champ Oleg Vassiliev, may also figure into the podium.

Entries: Adeline Canac and Maximin Coia (France), Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir (USA), Huibo Dong and Yiming Wu (China), Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison (Canada), Vanessa James and Yannick Bonheur (France), Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov (Russia), Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, Germany

Ice Dance

Canadians Tessa Virtue, of London, Ont. and Scott Moir, of Ilderton, Ont. are making their return to the Grand Prix circuit after missing the series last season when Virtue had to have surgery on both of her shins. They returned late in the season to earn bronze at the world championships, and they feel confident now that they are the best ice dance team in the world. They will debut their highly-anticipated new programs: a flamenco original dance and a free dance to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

Virtue and Moir enter the competition as the clear favourite but can expect some good competition from the French team of Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, Sinead and John Kerr of Great Britain, and Americans Emily Samuelson and Evan.

Entries: Zoé Blanc and Pierre-Loup Bouquet (France), Kristina Gorshkova and Vitali Butikov, (Russia), Madison Hubbell and Keiffer Hubbell (USA), Sinead Kerr and John Kerr (Great Britain), Kimberly Navarro and Brent Bommentre (USA), Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat (France), Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer (Russia), Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates (USA), Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (Canada)

The World Baseball Classic belongs to Japan again. Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki hit a two-out, two-run single in the top of the 10th, and Japan beat reigning Olympic champion South Korea 5-3 Monday night to win its second straight WBC title before a boisterous crowd of 54,846 at Dodger Stadium.
The Japanese won the inaugural tournament three years ago, beating Cuba 10-6 in the finals at Petco Park in San Diego.
South Korea had tied the game at 3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on Lee Bum-ho’s run-scoring single off Japanese closer Yu Darvish (2-1), who got in trouble by issuing one-out walks to Kim Hyun-soo and Kim Tae-kyun, the 3-4 hitters in the lineup.
Darvish struck out Choo Shin-soo before Lee lined a 1-1 pitch into left field, with pinch runner Lee Jong-wook scoring easily from second.
Seiichi Uchikawa opened the 10th with a single, was sacrificed to second and took third on a single by Akinori Iwamura. After pinch-hitter Munenori Kawasaki popped out, Iwamura took second on defensive interference.
Suzuki managed to foul off a pitch after it had bounced then lined the eighth pitch of the at-bat from Lim Chang-yong (1-1) to center for his fourth hit. The Mariners’ star entered with a .211 average and three RBIs in eight previous games.
Given the lead, Darvish worked around a leadoff walk to retire South Korea in the bottom of the 10th, setting off a wild celebration when he struck out Lee Jin-young to end the four-hour game.

Ichiro Suzuki (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Japan’s Daisuke Matsuzaka won the MVP award for the second straight time after going 3-0 — the same record he had in the inaugural Classic. The Boston Red Sox right-hander had a 2.45 ERA in 14 2-3 innings over three starts.
The game was the latest in an intense rivalry between the Asian powerhouses — a Far East version of a Yankees-Red Sox matchup. They split four previous games in this 16-team tournament, with Japan’s 6-2 triumph in San Diego last Thursday giving it the Pool 1 title in the second round.
Two days earlier, South Korea won a 4-1 decision, and its players planted the nation’s flag on the mound afterward — not the first time that’s happened. Suzuki made sure it wouldn’t happen on this night. Suzuki is 6-for-10 in two WBC title games.
South Korea beat Japan twice last summer in the Beijing Olympics en route to the gold medal. The South Koreans also beat Japan twice in the inaugural WBC three years ago before the Japanese won their semifinal matchup. And South Korea beat Japan 3-1 to win the bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics after losing to its rival 8-0 earlier in the Games.
Japan, which outhit South Korea 15-5, blew several scoring opportunities and stranded 14.
Japan took a 3-1 lead with single runs in the seventh and eighth. Yasuyuki Kataoka singled off Jong Hyun-wook to open the seventh, stole second, took third on Suzuki’s bunt single and scored on Hiroyuki Nakajima’s single. Japan had a chance to blow the game open, but after Suzuki took third on Norichika Aoki’s fly to deep right, Kenji Johjima grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Iwamura’s sacrifice fly off Hyunjin Ryu in the eighth gave the Japanese a two-run lead. The run was charged to Jong, who left after giving up a one-out single to Uchikawa. Atsunori Inaba followed with a ground-rule double before Iwamura’s fly to left.
South Korea got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Lee doubled, took third on an infield out and scored on pinch hitter Lee Dae-ho’s sacrifice fly. Toshiya Sugiuchi relieved after starter Hisashi Iwakuma issued a two-out walk to Park Ki-hyuk, and retired Lee Yong-kyu on a liner to left.
Iwakuma, a 27-year-old right-hander who won 21 games for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles last year, worked 7 2-3 innings, longest outing of the WBC, and allowed just four hits and two runs. He walked two, struck out six and threw 97 pitches — three shy of the maximum.
Japan took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run off Bong Jung-keun in the third on Michihiro Ogasawara’s RBI single, but it could have been a lot worse because Japan loaded the bases with one out before Kenta Kurihara grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Choo tied the game by hitting a 1-1 pitch from Iwakuma over the center field fence to open the fifth for his second homer in as many games. Iwakuma allowed only one baserunner in the first four innings.
Bong allowed six hits and one run in four-plus innings with three walks and one strikeout while using 94 pitches. Jong relieved with runners at first and third and nobody out in the top of the fifth and worked out of trouble, striking out two before catcher Park Kyung-oan threw out Aoki trying to steal second.
Bong, a 28-year-old left-hander who pitched in 48 big-league games with Atlanta and Cincinnati from 2002-04, beat Japan twice earlier in the WBC, giving up six hits and one run in 10 2-3 innings
An elaborate ceremony was held beforehand, with the teams entering the field in single file from their respective bullpens before lining up down the first and third baselines. Among those participating was Sadaharu Oh, the Japanese career home run leader who managed the Japanese to the WBC title three years ago.
Then after the Japanese, South Korean and United States national anthems were played, the players met in the middle of the diamond to shake hands before and Hall of Fame manager and WBC global ambassador Tom Lasorda and former Dodgers pitching star Fernando Valenzuela, a native of Mexico, threw ceremonial first pitches.
South Korea advanced to the championship game by beating Venezuela 10-2 Saturday night, and Japan earned its berth by topping the U.S. 9-4 Sunday night.

source: xxx-olympic-games.com

Debbie McCormick’s squad slid and swept their way to a win in the finals of the U.S. Olympic curling trials to become the first American athletes to secure spots for the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Team McCormick beat Patti Lank 8-5 in the final Saturday. McCormick sealed the win with a brilliant shot on the match’s final rock, knocking two of Lank’s stones out of the way.
This will be McCormick’s third trip to the Winter Olympics. She also was a member of the fifth-place team in 1998 at Nagano, and the ’02 squad that finished fourth in Salt Lake City.
The trials also doubled as the national championship, giving McCormick her fourth straight crown.

source: Canadian Press

Softball will seek to rejoin the Olympics alone after its governing body on Friday rejected baseball‘s proposal to make a joint pitch for inclusion.
Softball and baseball were dropped from the Olympics after last year’s Beijing Games but are among seven sports targeting the 2016 event when two sports will be added to the lineup.
In lobbying efforts, the International Softball Federation (ISF) has attempted to distance itself from baseball, which has been criticised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Major League Baseball’s failure to tackle doping issues and for not freeing top players to participate in the Games.
Golf, squash, rugby, karate and rollersports are the others sports hoping to join the Olympics.
“The ISF recently received a proposal from the International Baseball Federation for a combined approach for Olympic Games programme status,” ISF president Don Porter said in a statement.
“However, having looked at all the factors involved, the ISF has decided that softball will not combine with any other sport and stands by the current proposals to the International Olympic Committee submitted in our recent response to their questionnaire.
“We have offered the IOC a doping-free, universal team sport that reflects Olympic values all over the world.
“Softball is also a stand-alone sport with its own rules, values, and philosophy.”
Since softball was voted out of the Olympics in 2005, the ISF has launched a vigorous campaign for reinstatement.
Softball has attempted to address the IOC’s two biggest concerns that the sport is not played at the highest level in enough countries and is dominated by the U.S..
The ISF has introduced several new competitions around the world and pointed to Japan’s upset win over the U.S. in the gold medal final in Beijing as a sign the sport is growing.

The IOC will vote on the inclusion of up to two new sports during its congress in Copenhagen in October.

source: reuters.com

Mark Johnson was appointed coach of the U.S. Women’s Olympic hockey team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and that’s good news on so many levels that it’s impossible to list them all.
He wasn’t appointed because he played on the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. men’s team at Lake Placid, N.Y., where he scored twice in the “Miracle on Ice” team’s upset of the heavily favored Russians — and assisted on the winner and scored the insurance goal in the gold-medal game against Finland.
He wasn’t appointed because he’s the son of “Badger” Bob Johnson, the ever-optimistic coach who enjoyed the rare success of winning three NCAA titles at the University of Wisconsin and a Stanley Cup championship with the Pittsburgh Penguins before he died of brain cancer in November 1991.
(USA Hockey, the sport’s national governing body, is located on Bob Johnson Drive in Colorado Springs, Colo., one of many tributes to the man whose favorite saying, “It’s a great day for hockey,” is affectionately remembered by all who knew him).
Johnson, 51, got the Olympic job because of who he is and what he has done, not who he knew, and that can only be good for those who play for him and get to know him as he returns to the national stage.
Johnson, who played 11 seasons in the NHL, has been able to take the best of what he learned under taskmaster Herb Brooks with the 1980 team, blend it with his father’s knowledge and love for the game and bring to it his own ability to communicate, teach and create challenges that stimulate his players.
Johnson was an assistant coach of Wisconsin’s men’s team before taking over the women’s team and bringing the stability and solidity that would lead to two NCAA titles. He has been a part of the coaching staff of U.S. men’s and women’s teams for years.

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Rickey Henderson dashed into the Hall of Fame on his first try, Jim Rice made it with a final swing. It’s hard to imagine their induction speeches will have much in common, either. “I’m going to leave all the stories to Rickey,” Rice said, confirming that his remarks in Cooperstown this summer are likely to match his personality. “Believe me, it’s going to be short and quick. I don’t think you need to go there and talk for 15 or 20 minutes when you can get right to the point.”
That never stopped Henderson — but neither did opposing pitchers or catchers during his 25-year career.
The undisputed standard for leadoff hitters, Henderson received 94.8 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in balloting announced Monday, well above the 75 percent needed.
Rice, among the game’s most feared sluggers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, got 76.4 percent in his 15th and final year on the ballot after falling just shy with 72.2 percent last year.
“The only thing I can say is I’m glad it’s over with,” the Boston outfielder said. “I’m in there and they can’t take it away.”
Henderson, baseball’s career leader in runs scored and stolen bases, became the 44th player elected in his first year of eligibility. Rice was only the third elected by the BBWAA in his final year, joining Red Ruffing (1967) and Ralph Kiner (1975).
The pair will be inducted into the Hall during ceremonies on July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y. They’ll be joined by former Yankees and Indians second baseman Joe Gordon, elected posthumously last month by the Veterans Committee.
“I feel great about it. It’s been a long time coming,” Henderson said. “I was nervous, waiting.”
Henderson spoke on a conference call before boarding a flight to New York. He was rushing right along, even on this day.

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TWO martial arts starlets have received the perfect present for Christmas – being named the Bushido Academy of Judo’s Judoka of the Year.
Tom Dugdale, 12 and a pupil at St Thomas More School in North Shields, and 10-year-old David Beck, who attends St Peter’s School in Wallsend, were honoured at the Bushido’s Christmas party at Seghill Social Club.
Dugdale, who joined the club in 2001, took the award for the club’s Tuesday practice sessions and Bell, whose father was also a successful junior member and who joined the club last year, for the Friday session.
Club spokesman Chris Dawson said: “The awards are made to two of our pupils who have demonstrated the ability to regularly win the monthly club trophy.
“They must also, over the last 12 months of regular training, have shown excellent technique and fighting spirit as well as showing consideration to our younger members.”
Meanwhile, the Wallsend-based club entered nine junior members in the Northumberland Clubs for Young People Open Championships at Newcastle’s Westgate Centre for Sport.
Nine-year-old Ryan Evans started his run for gold with a spectacular ko-uchi-gake (minor inner hook) for ippon in the boys’ under-30kg section and continued his winning streak until the end of this event.
Team-mate Kieran Alpin, eight, took silver, only losing out to Evans in the same group.
Ben Kelly, 14, took the silver medal in the boys’ under-55kg event.
He lost only one fight and turned in an excellent performance in the remainder of his contests, including a perfect okuri-ashi-barai (foot sweep).
Fifteen year old Laurie Cairns gave a solid display in the girls’ open category by winning silver.
She scored ippon in all her contests except the last, where she lost only on a referee’s decision.
Ten-year-old David Beck started well in the boys’ under-35kg event, finishing up with bronze.
Melissa Carney, 11, was in a tough pool in the girls’ under-50kg event but still managed a bronze medal.
Runners-up medals were awarded to seven-year-olds Nathan McDonald and Jessica Cairns and 13-year-old Darren May.

source: chroniclelive.co.uk

John Daly smashed one tee shot off the top of a beer can during a pro-am. At another tournament, he returned from a rain delay with Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden as his caddie. And his most memorable photo this year came in an orange jail suit, eyes half-closed.
Daly said Wednesday that such unwelcome publicity is why the PGA Tour suspended him for six months.
The two-time major champion confirmed his suspension to The Associated Press, calling this the low point of an 18-year career during which he has made as much news off the course as he has with his prodigious game.
“Is it fair that I got suspended?” he said. “It’s not fair in reality, but it’s probably fair in perception.”
Daly said he wanted to go public to let fans and tournaments know that he wasn’t abandoning them by taking his game to the European tour. At least until the spring, he simply didn’t have much of a choice.
“I’m not sure this is the smartest thing to do, but I’d rather be honest, especially with the fans,” he said. “It’s hard for me not to play on the West Coast. I love it out there.”

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PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw declined comment, even after seeing Daly’s remarks, citing the tour’s longtime policy of not discussing fines or suspensions.
This is the second time the tour has suspended Daly, along with at least two other times when he agreed to sit out the final few months of a season to get his life in order.
He has not played on the PGA Tour since he missed the cut Oct. 17 in Las Vegas. Ten days later, police in Winston-Salem, N.C., said he appeared intoxicated outside a Hooters restaurant, and Daly was taken to jail to sleep it off. That led to his photo in the orange jail suit, which became an Internet sensation.

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Darren Sproles ran off the field clutching the game ball, leaving Peyton Manning to hang his head in frustration.
The San Diego Chargers outdid Manning for the second straight January, again turning to surprise stars to spark them along in the playoffs.
Given more playing time because of LaDainian Tomlinson’s groin injury, the speedy little Sproles scooted 22 yards for the winning score 6:20 into overtime and the Chargers beat the Colts 23-17 in an AFC wild-card game Saturday night.
Just like that, a Chargers team that sneaked into the playoffs at 8-8 eliminated the NFL’s hottest team a day after Manning won his third Associated Press NFL MVP award.
Also keeping the Chargers in the game was Mike Scifres, whose booming punts continually pinned the Colts deep in their territory. Scifres punted six times for an average of 52.7 yards, including a 67-yarder.
“I don’t know if you can dream a game like this,” Scifres said after the Chargers ended the Colts’ nine-game winning streak.
Sproles came up big on a night when the Chargers played the final 2 1/2 quarters without Tomlinson, who stood on the sideline in obvious discomfort from what appears to be a serious groin injury.
Fifty years after the Baltimore Colts won the first overtime game in league history by the same score over the New York Giants for the NFL title, Indianapolis wasn’t so fortunate. It was victimized by Sproles, who rushed 23 times for 105 yards, caught five passes for 45 yards, had 106 yards on four kickoff returns and 72 on three punt runbacks.
“It’s disappointing to lose a playoff game,” said Manning, who two years ago led the Colts to a Super Bowl victory over the Chicago Bears. “We certainly had some chances to win, but give them credit. We had chances to put the game away, but we just didn’t do it.”

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Two weeks after stunning spectators when he came from 65th to finish second in a downhill in Lake Louise, Switzerland’s Carlo Janka clinched his career first World Cup win during a giant slalom in Val d’Isere. The U.S. Ski Team’s Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) struggled under tough light and snow conditions to finish 12th.

The men’s giant slalom, along with the rest of this weekend’s alpine coverage, will be webcast on demand at UniversalSports.com.

Italy’s Massimiliano Blardone took second in the giant slalom and Gauthier De Tessieres of France was third.

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World champion Mao Asada‘s skill with the triple axel earned her a victory over longtime rival Kim Yu-na at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating finals on Saturday.

Jeremy Abbott of the United States won after hitting every jump in the free skate.

Asada’s triple axels — two launched at the start of her free skate_ proved decisive as she won with a total of 188.55 points, just 2.2 ahead of South Korea’s Kim at the Goyang Ice Arena north of Seoul.

“I am happy that I could land two triple axels in my program and that I was able to win here in Korea,” Asada said. “It is really special.”

It was a particularly satisfying victory for Asada of Japan, who had finished second to Kim at the last two Grand Prix finals.

Abbott breezed past Takahiko Kozuka of Japan for gold in his first Grand Prix final. Abbott earned 237.72 points, while Kozuka had 224.63.

Ice dancing world champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder capped off a victorious Grand Prix season with gold, and Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China rallied to win the pairs title.

But it was the showdown between Kim and Asada, rivals since their days as juniors, that took center stage at the sellout event. Even South Korea Prime Minister Han Seung-soo was in the audience.

Kim, the world bronze medalist, had won her last five consecutive Grand Prix series events. Asada, the reigning world champion, won the NHK Trophy but the finals title had eluded her.

Kim admitted to nerves Friday but pulled off a narrow, half-point lead over Asada in the short program. Fans showed their love for “Queen Yu-na” by throwing more than 550 stuffed animals and 500 flowers onto the rink, organizers said.

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GOYANG, South Korea : South Korean starlet Kim Yu-Na took first place in the ladies short programme at the ISU Grand Prix Friday, held in Goyang on the outskirts of Seoul.

In front of a huge home crowd, Kim scored 65.94 points to take top ranking despite making one mistake in her routine.

After nailing her opening jump combination of triple flip and triple toeloop, she botched the takeoff on her triple lutz, managing only a single rotation in the air.

A solid skate in the remainder of her routine enabled Kim to narrowly edge her Japanese rival Mao Asada, who is second at 65.38 points.

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Japan’s Fumie Suguri took the women’s lead Friday at the Cup of Russia with a short program that was confident and precise, if short on adventure.

Suguri, who took silver at Skate Canada, is in line for a slot in the Grand Prix final if she gains a gold or silver in Moscow, the fifth of six Grand Prix series competitions. With a score of 58.30 points, she edged Carolina Kostner of Italy, the world silver medalist, and American Rachael Flatt at Moscow’s Megasport Arena.

In a disappointing performance, 2006 world champion Kimmie Meissner was eighth.

Suguri nailed all her jumps, with the only flaw a bit of apparent hesitation before her triple flip. She took fewer risks than Kostner or Flatt, essaying only a triple-double combination and front-loading all her jumps into the start of her program to “Fanfan” by Nicolas Jorelle.

Kostner tried a triple-triple, but put a hand down on the second jump, then fell on a triple lutz. But her drama and elegance won her the highest artistic marks of all the women.

Flatt stepped out of the first part of her triple-triple and only doubled the toe loop jump when she tried to add it on to her ensuing triple lutz.

But she held back a double axel until more than two minutes into the program, and got the second-highest technical marks.

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A Japanese schoolgirl is making headlines across the world today as the first woman to play pro baseball in Japan.

A 16-year-old schoolgirl with a mean knuckleball has been selected as the first woman ever to play alongside the men in Japanese professional baseball.

Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new independent league that will launch in April, drawing attention for a side-armed knuckler that her future manager Yoshihiro Nakata said was a marvel.

“I never dreamed of getting drafted,” Yoshida told reporters Monday, a day after she was selected to play for the Kobe 9 Cruise.

“I have only just been picked by the team and have not achieved anything,” she said. “I want to play as a pro eventually in a higher league.“

Yoshida, 155 centimetres (five feet) tall and weighing 52 kilograms (114 pounds), says she wants to follow in the footsteps of the great Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

A female professional baseball federation existed for a few years in the 1950s, but Yoshida will become Japan’s first-ever woman to play alongside professional male players.

(c) AFP

JAPAN stunned the United States 3-1 tonight to claim Olympic softball gold, denying America a fourth straight title.

Softnall is due to be dropped from the Games after Beijing.

It was the first time the US failed to win the gold since softball was introduced in 1996, and their first defeat in 22 Olympic matches – a stretch dating back to Sydney 2000.
Instead they settled for silver, with Australia taking bronze.

Japan, semi-final losers to the United States, had reached the gold medal game with a dramatic, second-chance 4-3 12-inning victory over Australia in a final-round play-off game.

In two games Thursday, Japanese pitcher Yukiko Ueno threw a total of 21 innings, but she showed no ill effects as she played seven innings and got the win for Japan.

“My strong belief to win,” was what carried her through the fatigue, Ueno said.

Eri Yamada homered in the fourth inning, giving Japan a 2-0 lead before a brief rain delay halted play.

Ayumi Karino’s base hit in the third had scored Masumi Mishina to put Japan ahead, and Japan added another run in the top of the seventh.

Crystl Bustos’s homer in the bottom of the fourth was the lone US run.

US dominance of the sport has been fingered as one reason softball has been dropped for London 2012, but backers of the game are still hoping it will be reinstated eventually.

Japanese coach Haruka Saito said the upset could add impetus to the “Back Softball” campaign to bring it back.

“It is a big encouragement and motivation for us to get softball back into the Olympic Games,” she said.

“We will promote it all over the world, every corner of the world.”

Yamada said the win, which came after an extra-innings loss to the United States in the semis and the win over Australia, showed softball was a worthy Olympic sport.

“The world needs to know softball is a really good game,” she said.

“Our winning is the first step to help Back Softball. We are very glad we made it.”

from: foxsports.com.au

Semi-finals and final races in the men’s and women’s BMX competition have been postponed until Friday due to rain, officials said.

Heavy rain from the early hours of Thursday soaked the dirt course and cycling officials determined that it would be too dangerous to run the competition.

“In consideration of the fairness of the competition, and after negotiation with the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) technical delegate, as well as Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, the competition schedule will now run from 9:00 until 11:00 on 22 August,” said a statement from Laoshan cycling officials.

The change means the men’s and women’s BMX and the women’s mountain biking finals will all be held on Thursday.

Riders said they were disappointed that they would have to wait for competition, after getting mentally and physically prepared to race.

But one rider — American Kyle Bennett — was thankful for the extra time, after dislocating his shoulder in a high-speed crash in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

“I think a day off wouldn’t hurt,” said Bennett, who got back on his bicycle and rode off the course after a doctor popped his shoulder back in.

Bennett qualified for the semi-finals despite the crash because he had finished second and fourth in the first two of three quarter-final runs.

“It’s going to be tough to race,” he said in an interview. “The plan is to do everything I can do to prepare it for tomorrow.”

Bennett, a pre-race medal favorite along with his two team mates, said the rain made the asphalt curves and the steep, three-storey high starting ramp too dangerous to ride.

The American said he and the other riders will have a hard time sitting around waiting for another day to race.

“The anticipation kind of gets to you when you have to sit around,” Bennett said. “But who knows, sometimes it works out for the best.”

from: reuters.com

Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10km swim on Thursday.

Britain’s David Davies won the silver and Germany’s Thomas Lurz the bronze.

from: reuters.com