Ohno takes 1,500 at nationals

MILWAUKEE — Apolo Ohno of Seattle and Hyo Jung Kim won 1,500-meter races last night at the national short-track speedskating championships.

Ohno, who clinched his third World Cup overall title two weeks ago, charged from fifth to first midway through his race, beating out Rusty Smith of Long Beach, Calif.

Ohno crossed the line in 2 minutes, 22.949 seconds.

"The race was dangerous. Guys were passing all over the place," he said. "At first, I kind of wanted to be up toward the front. But then I decided to kind of hang back. It was a kind of crazy race."

Kim, 16, of Fullerton, Calif., held off a hard-charging Allison Baver, of Sinking Spring, Pa., to win in 2:33.144. The race was the first of four events spread over three days at the Pettit National Ice Center.

Ohno and Kim were the top qualifiers among the men and women who qualified in time trials Thursday for the championship's senior elite division.

At stake are national titles for the top male and female skaters based on points in all four races. The point totals will also be used to select members of the U.S. team that will compete in the world short-track championships in Beijing next month.

Shani Davis of Chicago was disqualified in his 1,500-meter semifinal heat for impeding.

Davis has competed this season for both the U.S. long- and short-track teams. Earlier this month, Davis won the overall title at the World Allround Championship for long-track skaters.

Notes

• Sweden's Anja Paerson won a super-giant slalom in San Sicario, Italy, to inaugurate the course for next year's Turin Olympics.

It was her first victory in a World Cup speed event.

Paerson boosted her lead in the overall World Cup standings and showed her win in the Super-G at the world championships was not a fluke. She covered the Fraiteve Olympique course in 1 minute, 31.85 seconds.

Italy's Isolde Kostner, an early starter, was second, 0.57 seconds behind, for her best result this season. The top American was 13th-place Lindsey Kildow.

• Figure skaters Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn, former U.S. pairs champions, announced they are ending their eight-year partnership, and he is retiring.

Scott, 27, and Dulebohn, 31, who represented the United States at the Salt Lake City Olympics, have been skating together since 1996. They were fourth at last month's U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

"I've been skating for a long time," Dulebohn said in a statement. "I've really accomplished what I set out to do with skating, and I'm satisfied with what I've done. I really feel like it's time for me personally to move on."

• World Cup leader Janne Ahonen of Finland won the large-hill ski jump in Oberstdorf, Germany, for the fifth gold medal of his career at the world championships.

Ahonen made two near-perfect jumps of more than 141 meters to win with 313.2 points.