Federations Roundup - World Champs in Skating, Women's Curling, Team Table Tennis

Night Tennis at 2012 Olympics?

A top tennis official says to expect some night play on Wimbledon's Centre Court during the London Olympics.

"There will not be a night session, but the matches may go into night time," International Tennis Federation executive vice president Juan Margets Margets told ESPN, citing the busy Games schedule.

Mixed doubles will be contested at the Olympics this summer for the first time since 1924, adding to the many matches that must be played in just eight days.

Wimbledon first covered Centre Court in 2009 to allow for continued play in the rain as well as matches that run into the evening. Play at the All England Club, however, is prohibited after 11 p.m.

"We will not stop a match in the middle of a service motion," Margets said. "But there is a limit. If by 11 it's not over, we'll go to the next day."

Mongolian Award for Boxing Boss

International Boxing Association president C.K. Wu is the newest recipient of the Order of the Polar Star, the highest civilian award Mongolia can present to international leaders.

"It is a great honor for me but also for AIBA," the IOC member from Chinese Taipei said Saturday at a ceremony in the capital of Ulan Bator.

"The worldwide AIBA Family greatly value His Excellency Elbegdorj Tsakhia's interest and support for our sport. I have been very impressed by the love and passion shown for boxing by the Mongolian people. I am convinced that Mongolia will be one of the leading countries of the Olympic Movement and the sport of boxing in particular."

Pair of Skating World Champs

A record 219 skaters and couples from 55 countries will compete in the World Figure Skating Championships underway Monday in Nice, France.

Pairs and ice dance preliminary rounds arefirst up on the program with ladies and men’s preliminary rounds to follow Tuesday.

Dutch speed skaters, meanwhile, dominated on home soil over the weekend at the world single distance championships.

Led by men’s 1,000m champ Stefan Groothuis, they won 14 of the 36 medals on offer in Heerenveen, including five of the 12 gold.

Christine Nesbitt of Canada defended her 1,000m title and added her first 1,500 win at a world championships, helping her country take second on the medals table.

Martina Sáblíkovátook both 3,000m and 5,000m gold to singlehandedly place Czech Republicina tie for third with South Korea, who won both 500m races.

Swiss Win Women’s Curling WC

Switzerland leaves Lethbridge, Canada with its first women’s curling world championship since 1983.

The team of Janine Greiner, Carmen Küng, Carmen Schäfer, and Mirjam Ott edged Sweden 7-6 in Sunday’s gold-medal game, two days after the reigning champs beat the Swiss by that same score in a first-round playoff.

After ousting USA late Friday in a tiebreaker, Canada topped South Korea 9-6 to take bronze.

Team Table Tennis Champs

A record 118 men's teams and 91 women's teams are in Dortmund, Germany this week for the 2012 World Team Table Tennis Championships.

The eight-day competition is a must for countries hoping to enter the team events at London 2012.

China are the defending men's champs and Singapore the women's.

UEFA U-17 Champs Bound for Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is awarded European football’s under-17 championships in 2016 to go along with the FIFA’s U-17 showpiece in September.

The eastern European country won hosting rights last week from the UEFA Executive Committee at its meeting in Istanbul.

The tournament in 2016 will be the second to feature an expanded draw of 16 teams after the switch from eight taking place in 2015.

Written by Matthew Grayson

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.