Triathlon Leader Tours Japan; Yu Na Kim Rethinks World Champs

Yokohama Stop Ahead for Triathlon

Triathlon is returning to Japan for the first time since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The disaster forced the postponement of a Yokohama stop on the ITU World Championship Series as well as the cancellation of an ITU Triathlon Asian Cup in Sendai Bay.

Alongside Shichigahama mayor Yoshio Watanabe, International Triathlon Union president Marisol Casado toured one of the country’s most decimated regions Thursday, the first such visit by an IOC member.

"Myself, members of the ITU and international triathletes were all deeply saddened by news of the tsunami," she told a Foreign Correspondents' Club luncheon in Tokyo afterwards.

"I have to say that this was a good opportunity to visit the eastern area. I think this is a very important and special place for triathlon in Japan and when we heard the news, we were very worried about our triathlon family in Japan."

Casado is in Japan for Monday’s rescheduled Yokohama meet. Previously slated for May 14, the race would have had athletes swimming in a harbor just 300 km south of the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor from which millions of liters of radioactive water leaked into the Pacific Ocean in the months after the disaster.

"Of course we were all worried about the safety, but actually our main problem was to communicate without speculation," said the ITU president.

"We decided to come back after our Grand Final in Beijing, and the result has been so good as we are here with a full start list of the best athletes in the world competing in Yokohama."

Because the event now follows last weekend’s conclusion of the 2011 World Championships Series, the Olympic qualification points available in Yokohama will still go toward London 2012 but the WCS points at stake will count toward crowning next year’s world champion.

Yu Na Kim Doubtful for World Champs

Olympic figure skating champion Yu Na Kim says she’sundecided about competing in her sport’s next world championships.

"In order to compete, you have to have a clear goal and be mentally prepared for it," she said Thursday at an event in Los Angeles during which the city was awarded hosting rights to the 2015 Special Olympics.

"But I don't know exactly what I want to do at this point."

Kim, 21, is a global ambassador for the World Summer Games, a role she also served for PyeongChang 2018’s successful Winter Olympic bid.

After winner silver at this year’s world champs in May, she resumed training at the East West Ice Palace in LA this month, but without a coach and without the three-month head start enjoyedby her peers.

"I am in good form, practicing two to three hours a day," she was quoted by media in her native South Korea.

"I will decide whether to join any competitions when I'm mentally and physically ready."

Next year’s worlds are scheduled for March in Nice, France.

Olympic Future Unclear for South African Hockey Squads

Both the men’s and women’s national hockey teams of South Africa are bound for London 2012 after defending their Africa Cup titles – or so IOC and Internal Hockey Federation rules dictate.

Staged over the weekend in Zimbabwe, the tournament is the continent’s official Olympic qualifier, and victory grants an automatic berth to the Games.

According to South African daily The Witness, additional requirements imposed by country’s National Olympic Committee demand that the teams also reach at least the final of the second-tier Champions Challenge.

For the South African men, that event comes at home in November and December. The women, however, already placed fifth in this year’s edition a few months back in Dublin.

It’s unclear whether the NOC will honor the automatic berths attained at the Africa Cup or withhold its own hockey teams from the London Olympics.

Efforts made Friday by Around the Rings seeking clarification from theSouth African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee have so far been unsuccessful.

Written by Matthew Grayson.