Japan Sports Roundup: Soccer, Golf, Olympics
Olympics: Snowboard cross rider Fujimori out of hospital, to compete
Japanese snowboard cross racer Yuka Fujimori was released from a hospital on Saturday, a day after banging her head in an accident during training for the Vancouver Olympics.
The Japanese delegation said that the 23-year-old was admitted to a hospital as a precautionary measure but is set to compete in the race getting under way on Tuesday as scheduled.
On Friday, Fujimori made a crash landing when she was thrown off- balance by a gust of wind at Cypress Mountain. No abnormalities were found after she underwent a detailed examination the same day.
Fujimori finished in seventh at the Turin Olympics in 2006.
Olympics: Japanese jumpers struggle on normal hill in Vancouver
Japan's campaign to match its best ever Winter Olympic medal haul got off to a rocky start Saturday as the country's ski jumpers struggled to make an impact in the normal hill individual event on the first full day of competition at the Vancouver Games.
Daiki Ito could only muster 15th place in the Games' first medal event and veteran Noriaki Kasai was 17th, while Taku Takeuchi and Shohei Tochimoto both failed to advance to the second round of jumps at Whistler Olympic Park.
Simon Ammann of Switzerland, who won both individual titles at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, took the lead with a first jump of 105 meters before following it up with a monster 108-meter effort to clinch victory with 276.5 points.
"I have no words for this. It's crazy. I tried so hard to focus," Ammann said. "It's my third (Olympic) gold medal. It's insane."
Poland's Adam Malysz won the silver with 269.5 points and the bronze medal went to heavily favored Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer, who scored 268.0.
Ito jumped 100.5 meters to tie German Michael Neumayer in 10th place in the first round and leapt 100 meters on his second jump for 249.5 points.
"I did the best I could but a small difference made for a big drop down the standings. The result is disappointing," said Ito. "Still, my performance will hopefully set me up for the large hill."
Kasai, the first Japanese to appear in six Winter Olympics, posted jumps of 99 and 100.5 meters for 244.5 points.
"I thought both my jumps were okay and I was able to feel comfortable with my position on the inrun for the first time since coming here. I want to take my frustration (at the result) out on the large hill," said the 37-year-old Kasai.
Takeuchi and Tochimoto both failed to qualify for the final after first jumps of 94.5 and 93.5 meters, respectively.
"My jump wasn't bad so I haven't got any regrets. I gave it everything I had," said Takeuchi.
Tochimoto said, "I was able to relax but I don't have enough ability. Technically something is lacking. I wasn't able to raise my game."
Japan has set a somewhat ambitious goal of matching the record haul of 10 medals the country won when it hosted the 1998 Nagano Games.
Japan took just one medal, a gold won by figure skater Shizuka Arakawa, at the Turin Games four years ago.
Ishikawa, Imada miss cut at Pebble Beach
Japan's Ryo Ishikawa and Ryuji Imada missed the cut after the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Saturday.
Ishikawa shot a 2-under 70 at the Pebble Beach Golf Links for a 54- hole total of 1-over 215, five strokes short of the cut.
In his second U.S. PGA event of the year, the 18-year-old Japanese money title winner broke par for the first time this week but had too much ground to make up after struggling in the first two rounds.
Imada was three shots shy of advancing to the final round after a 72 on the par-70 Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course left him at 1 under for the tournament.
Defending champion Dustin Johnson and fellow American Paul Goydos shared the third-round lead at 18 under.
Japan beat S.Korea to win East Asian championship
Forward Shinobu Ono scored once to lead Japan to a 2-1 victory over South Korea and win the women's title at the East Asian football championship on Saturday.
Japan ended the four-nation round robin with three straight wins. China had two wins and a defeat, South Korea a 1-2 record. Winless Taiwan were at the bottom.
Earlier in the day China defeated Taiwan 3-0.
"We kept the momentum until we scored two goals, while South Korea were still tuning up. But after that, they started to play more aggressively and it became a difficult game," said Japan coach Norio Sasaki.
Japan got off to a flying start when Ono received the ball in the Japanese field and then dashed forward, getting past the Korean defence line into the area to fire a sizzling shot for the first goal in the seventh minute.
The home side quickly made it two up when Ono sent a straight pass to midfielder Mami Yamaguchi, who hit home into the right side in the 17th minute.
South Korea started to play much better after the break, starting with Cho So-Hyun's header that went wide, and almost controlled the game until the end.
Midfielder Lee Jang-Mi's shot went over the bar, but finally they scored a goal off the Japanese for the first time in the tournament when forward Yoo Young-A netted on a Cho So-Hyun pass in the 75th minute.
But it completed the scoring for both teams.
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