MARQUETTE, Mich. — Apolo Anton Ohno earned a narrow victory in the 500 meters at the U.S. short track speedskating national championships.
The five-time Olympic medalist barely got his right skate blade in front of Jeff Simon in the finals on Saturday night at the hockey rink on the Northern Michigan University campus.
Ohno was timed in 41.928, with Simon crossing the line in 41.967.
Travis Jayner was third and Jordan Malone fourth. The victory allowed Ohno to pad his first-place point total in the overall standings.
The top five men and women earn spots on the Olympic team for next year’s Vancouver Games.
J.R. Celski was injured in a crash, but it won’t keep him off the Olympic team.
Celski fell in his 500-meter semi- final heat and hit the boards coming out of a turn and bounced off them. One of his skate blades appeared to cut his left leg, spilling blood on the ice.
The race was stopped as emergency personnel rushed to Celski. He was removed by stretcher and taken to a hospital.
WNBA: Shock downs Sky
CHICAGO — Shavonte Zellous scored 20 points and Deanna Nolan added 19 to lead the Detroit Shock to an 80-69 victory over Chicago, eliminating the Sky from playoff contention.
The Washington Mystics’ 82-64 win over the visiting Atlanta Dream gave the Mystics the final postseason spot.
• Shannon Johnson scored 16 points and Janell Burse added 15 to lead the Seattle Storm to a 64-55 victory over the host San Antonio Silver Stars.
Montero lifts Sounders
WASHINGTON — Fredy Montero scored his 11th goal in the 84th minute and the Seattle Sounders earned a 2-1 win over D.C. United.
James Riley lobbed the ball just inside the box to Montero, who hooked a shot to the top right corner of the goal past Josh Wicks.
• In other action, Josh Wolff‘s goal lifts the visiting Kansas City Wizards to 1-0 win over the New York Red Bulls; and Real Salt Lake tied the visiting Chicago Fire 1-1.
Jeff Cunningham had two goals to propel visiting FC Dallas to a 6-3 rout of the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Moncoutie wins Vuelta stage
SIERRA NEVADA, Spain — David Moncoutie of France won the mountainous 13th stage of the Spanish Vuelta and Alejandro Valverde of Spain kept the overall lead.
Spain’s Ezequiel Mosquera was second, 52 seconds behind, and Valverde finished third, 1:16 back. Robert Gesink of the Netherlands and Ivan Basso of Italy crossed the line on the same time.
• Italian Francesco Chicchi won the sixth stage of the Tour of Missouri in St. Joseph.
Footnote.
Tyson Gay beat Asafa Powell in the 100 meters at the World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki, Greece, finishing in 9.88 seconds in his last major race of the track season.
Gay overcame a slow start to pull away from Powell, who was timed in 9.90. Darvis Patton of the U.S. was third in 10.00.
The Associated Press
