to move up and down
Topsy turvy: Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir of USA perform during day four of the ISU World Team Trophy at Yoyogi National Gymnasium on April 14, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)
FLASHY: Elena Ilinykh (R) and Nikita Katsalapov (L) of Russia perform during their short ice dance event in the NHK Trophy, the last leg of the six-stage ISU figure skating Grand Prix series. (Photo: AFP PHOTO/Toru YAMANAKA)
BOTTOM: Mao Asada of Japan performs during women’s short program at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
(Source: nationalpost.com)
Canada’s Milos Raonic stunned U.S. Open champion Andy Murray 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4) to reach the final of the Japan Open on Saturday.
The 21-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., will face Kei Nishikori in Sunday’s final.
Raonic remains firmly in the chase for one of four remaining spots at the November year-end championships in London and would rise to provisional tenth for the eight-man field should he win the title in Tokyo.
Photo: Koki Nagahama/Getty Images
The strangest thing you will see all day: Ichiro is now a Yankee. The Mariners traded the veteran outfielder to New York before Monday’s game…against New York. Photo: Robert Sorbo/Reuters
(Source: http)
Remember how Japan’s women’s soccer team won the World Cup last year? Well, apparently it wasn’t good enough for them to fly first class with the men’s team to the Olympics this week.
The women’s team was assigned seats in premium economy for the 13-hour flight to Paris while the nation’s under-23 men’s team was up front on the same flight.
“It should have been the other way around,” 2011 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year Homare Sawa told Japanese media after arriving in the French capital. “Even just in terms of age we are senior.”
The Japan Football Association said the men fly business class to the Olympics because they are professionals.
Second-place showings from Patrick Chan and ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir on Thursday have Canada sitting fourth following the opening day of the ISU World Team Trophy figure skating event in Tokyo.
Chan, the two-time reigning men’s world champion from Toronto, skated a season-best short program despite his fall on a triple Axel. He finished with 89.81 points, well back of world silver medallist Daisuke Takahashi of Japan, who set a world-record 94.00 in the short. Jeremy Abbott of the U.S. is third with 86.98.
Finally, a game that counts: Seattle Mariners outfiekder Ichiro Suzuki is chased by Oakland Athletics shortstop Cliff Pennington after hitting an RBI single in the 11th inning of their season opener in Tokyo March 28, 2012. Ichiro had four hits and the Mariners won 3-1.
Photo: Toru Hanai/Reuters
A boy holds a baseball and a pen before an exhibition baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo.
Members of the Oakland Athletics and Mariners got a firsthand look at the devastation from the earthquake and tsunami on Tuesday when they visited one of the towns hit hardest by last year’s disaster in Japan.
More than 19,000 people in Japan were killed by the disaster on March 11, 2011. About 46% of Ishinomaki, a city of 150,000, was inundated by up 32 feet of water.
“There is an air of silence you have in the car when you drive through it and see it,” Seattle manager Eric Wedge said. “That’s just a small stretch. You picture that times 150 miles and its just pure devastation.”
Major League Baseball made a donation of $500,000 to the city to help in reconstruction efforts.
After a bus tour of the disaster zone, the players conducted a baseball clinic with students from the area, many of whom had homes destroyed or lost family members.
“Of all the things I had to do here this is the one I wanted to do most,” Oakland pitcher Tommy Milone said. “Obviously, we do clinics back home, but to be able to give back to these kids who have lost homes and family members is something special.”
It’s that time of year: Seattle Mariners right-fielder Ichiro Suzuki catches fly balls during an MLB spring training camp in Peoria, Arizona, February 18, 2012. Photo: Rick Scuteri/Reuters
Can’t get enough of Yu
Bruce Arthur: Yu Darvish is a wonderful idea. Twenty-five years old, 6-foot-5, a power pitcher with five or six or a hundred different pitches, the king of the Japanese League, the Roy Halladay of the East.
Maybe all that will translate to North America, and perhaps the team that wins the bidding for the rights to negotiate with him will be pleased with what it paid for. There is just enough of a shroud of mystery involved that Yu Darvish just might be everything he is dreamed to be. Photo: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
