■ SPEEDSKATING
Ohno heats up track
Apolo Anton Ohno of the US won the 1,500m race on Friday at a World Cup short track speedskating meet in Bormio, Italy, a key competition ahead of next year's Winter Olympics in Turin. Ohno, the Olympic champion at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, won in 2 minutes, 27.716 seconds. South Korea's Lee Ho-suk was second in 2:27.786 and Canada's Charles Hamelin took bronze in 2:27.982. Jin Sun-yu of South Korea took the gold medal in the women's 1,500m race in 2:33.578, ahead of compatriot Choi Eun-kyung and China's Yang Yang. The events in the northern Italian town of Bormio continue through Sunday. Results from the competitions will be combined with those from next week's World Cup meet in The Hague, Netherlands, to determine how many skaters for each country will qualify for February's Winter Games. Each country can win up to three spots for its racers in each event.
■ RUGBY
Fire disrupts today's match
Thousands of rugby fans with tickets for today's Ireland-New Zealand test will be turned away after a fire forced a temporary closure of part of Lansdowne Road in Dublin, Ireland. Although the blaze was restricted to a small area under the North Terrace, the Irish Rugby Football Union said that entire area must be closed until a full safety inspection was carried out, and that will be after the game. The closure does not affect the seats immediately behind the goalline. The suspension affected 7,500 ticketholders in the 49,000-seat stadium, according to an Irish TV report. "North Terrace ticketholders are advised it will not be possible to gain access to any other area of the stadium," the IRFU said in a statement. "In the interest of safety and crowd control, North Terrace ticketholders are earnestly asked not to come to the vicinity of the ground." The IRFU said it will soon advise about refunds.
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