World figure skating championships in Tokyo are postponed

The International Skating Union has postponed the world figure skating championship’s which had been scheduled to start next week in Japan.

Parts of Japan have been devastated by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit last Friday and the ISU says it “is not possible” to host the championships in Tokyo as scheduled from March 21-27.

The ISU said it hasn’t decided whether to reschedule or cancel the event.

The World Team Trophy in Figure Skating, scheduled to be held in Yokohama, Japan, on April 14-17, will also be postponed.

The official death toll from the disaster is about 2,800 with thousands of people still missing.

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Jenny Wolf of Germany won the women’s 500-meter title for the fourth year in a row at the speedskating world championships at Inzell, Germany, and the U.S. surprisingly won the team pursuit.

The American trio of Shani Davis, Trevor Marsicano and Jonathan Kuck clocked 3 minutes 41.72 seconds to take the gold ahead of Canada and Netherlands.

American speedskater Katherine Reutter won the silver medal in the women’s overall competition at the World Short Track Championships at Sheffield, England.

ETC.

Paddock guard feeling better

The condition of injured 90-year-old paddock guard John Shear had improved “180 degrees” Sunday over what it was Saturday night at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, his son said.

Shear, who was injured while shielding a 6-year-old girl from a runaway loose horse at Santa Anita, was hospitalized after the accident that occurred before Saturday’s third race.

Shear has multiple fractures, but doctors are not planning to perform surgery at this time, his son, Mike, said.

Michael Bradley won the Puerto Rico Open for the second time in three years, beating fellow American Troy Matteson in a playoff at Rio Grande.

The 44-year-old Bradley closed with his fourth straight four-under-par 68 to match Matteson (72) at 16-under 272 at Trump International Golf Club, then parred the par-five 18th in the playoff for his fourth PGA Tour victory.

Del Worsham defeated seven-time top-fuel champion Tony Schumacher in the final round of the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway to become the 15th driver to win top-fuel and funny-car events. Other winners at the second of 22 NHRA races this season were Mike Neff (funny car) and Jason Line (pro stock)Eddie Krawiec .

Mitchell Page, who had a fantastic rookie season for the Oakland Athletics in 1977 and played eight years in the majors before becoming a hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, died Saturday at 59. The Cardinals did not disclose the cause of death.

Rick Martin, a member of the Buffalo Sabres’ famed French Connection line in the 1970s, died after being involved in a one-car accident Sunday in Clarence, N.Y. He was 59.