Updated - Triathlon Postpones Yokohama Race; Silver Medal Marathoner, 57

Triathlon Postpones Stop in Japan

International Triathlon Union president Marisol Casado tells Around the Ringsthe decision to postpone next month's race in Yokohama was not an easy one but that radiation concerns overrode other factors.

"The announcement [that the Japanese government raised the nuclear alert to the highest level of 7] destroyed all previous consensus," she told ATR.

"I'm confident that we will find a very good solution for Yokohama, the local organizing committee and athletes."

Previously slated for May 14, the race would have had athletes swimming 1.5 km in Yokohama Harbor, located 300 km south of the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor from which millions of liters of radioactive water have leaked into the Pacific Ocean since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck March 11.

Reigning Olympic champions and significant others Jan Frodeno of Germany and Emma Snowsill of Australia had planned to boycott the event, but other top triathletes had been more than willing to make the trip.

Two-time Olympic medalist Bevan Docherty of New Zealand, two-time reigning world champion Emma Moffatt of Australia and her boyfriend Bradley Kahlefeldt all intended to compete up until Monday’s postponement.

Yokohama would have been the second of seven stops on the Dextro Energy ITU Triathlon World Championship Series, a competition in which athletes vie for the title of world champion while earning Olympic qualification points.

Races kicked off in Sydney earlier this month and will resume in Madrid in early June.

Whether another city will replace Yokohama on the calendar remains to be seen. The ITU is in discussions with the local organizing committee, city government and Japanese Triathlon Union to reschedule the stop for later in the series.

This is Japan’s latest top-tier sports event to fall victim to the earthquake, tsunami and, in this case, ongoing nuclear emergency.

The figure-skating world championships as well as a number of soccer fixtures are also among the quake’s sporting casualties, and the International Gymnastics Federation will decide next month whether October’s artistic world champs will remain in Tokyo.

Grete Waitz, Silver Medalist, 57

Norwegian marathon runner Grete Waitz died on Tuesday from a bout with cancer. She was 57.

Waitz won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics and a gold medal at the 1983 athletics world championships.

She entered the 1500m event in 1972 and 1976 but did not medal. Prior to the 1984 Olympics, the 1500m was the longest distance women ran at the Olympics.

Norway boycotted the 1980 Olympics. Waitz dropped out of the 1988 Olympic marathon around the 1/3 mark of the course due to injury.

"The dedication, perseverance and fortitude with which Grete carved out her athletics career on the track, across the country and on the road is an example to us all, as is the positive way she tackled the illness that beset her life in recent years," IAAF president Lamine Diack said in a statement.

"Grete is in my eyes one of the greatest Norwegian athletes of all time," Norwegian Athletics Federation president Svein Arne Hansen was quoted by The Associated Press. "Not only through her performances in the sport, but also as a role model for women in sports."

She is survived by her husband Jack and brothers Jan and Arlid.

Born in Oslo on October 1, 1953, Waitz, nee Andersen, is considered one of the greatest women’s marathon runners of all time.

Following her retirement she was active in several non-profits.

For six years, she received treatment for cancer.

Written by Ed Hula III.