Briefly

American Nikodinov wins Skate America women’s championship

After skating little in the last two years following shoulder surgery, Angela Nikodinov arrived at Skate America just hoping to compete.

The 24-year-old American did that and more Saturday in Pittsburgh, winning the women’s title after completing 10 jumps while the rest of the field fell — literally.

Japan’s Miki Ando, who led entering the free skate, fell while attempting a quadruple salchow and a triple lutz. She ended up third, behind Canada’s Cynthia Phaneuf, who also couldn’t complete several triple jumps.

“To be able to get myself at this level and still not be at my top, it’s really going to make me better for nationals,” said Nikodinov, who skated last and finished with an overall score of 149.50.

Nikodinov is a perennial competitor. She first skated in a senior event in 1996 and has had several top-10 finishes at Skate America. Her longtime coach, Elena Tcherkasskaia, died in 2001 of cancer. Nikodinov now skates with Igor Pashkevich.

“I wanted to come back and prove to (Elena) that I could do it,” Nikodinov said with her new coach at her side.

Ando, fighting back tears after the competition, said through an interpreter that she was disappointed she couldn’t do what she had set out to perform. Her program in the free skate was the most difficult, in part because of the inclusion of the quadruple jump. Ando is the first woman to land a quadruple jump in competition.

In ice dancing, Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto won the competition for the second consecutive year.

Dressed in gypsy-inspired costumes, they skated a program with perfectly synchronized turns that brought the crowd to its feet.

“Our energy felt really good,” Agosto said.

•World champion pairs skater Tatiana Totmianina of Russia fell headfirst onto the ice during the free skate at Skate America.

Totmianina’s partner, Maxim Marinin, had just lifted her into the air in a one-handed lift when they lost their balance. Totmianina tumbled to the ice as the crowd gasped.

She lay motionless for about five minutes before being carried off on a stretcher.

U.S. figure skating officials said Totmianina was “stabilized well” by an attending physician and taken by ambulance to the trauma center at nearby Mercy Hospital.

They would not release any details on her condition, citing patient privacy laws.

Tennis

Agassi ousted in Madrid

Marat Safin played his best tennis in quite some time, defeating Andre Agassi 6-3, 7-6 (4) to advance to the final of the Madrid Masters.

The third-seeded Russian will face Argentina’s David Nalbandian, who defeated Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

“Long time ago, really long time ago,” Safin said when asked when he last played that well.

“I’m actually surprised. It was really difficult times in the summer. I didn’t play well. I lost my confidence.”

•Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova advanced to the final of the Swisscom Challenge, defeating fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a semifinal in Zurich, Switzerland.

The fourth-seeded Sharapova, who eliminated Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, extended her winning streak to 12 matches and will face Australia’s Alicia Molik, a semifinal winner against No. 10 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.

Miscellany

Wambach scores five times

Abby Wambach became the fourth player in U.S. women’s national soccer team history to score five goals in a game, leading the Americans to a 5-0 victory over Ireland in Houston in the seventh game of the “Fan Celebration Tour.”

Brandi Chastain, Michelle Akers and Tiffany Milbrett also have had five-goal games for the Americans.

•Bill Nicholson, who coached Tottenham Hotspur, an English soccer team, in its glory days of the 1960s and 1970s, died after a long illness at a hospital in Hertfordshire, outside London. He was 85.

•Anja Paerson picked up where she left off last year, winning the season-opening World Cup giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, in a two-run time of 2 minutes, 25.21 seconds.

American Kristina Koznick was fourth, matching her best result of last season.

•Joey Cheek, finishing in 1:49.56, edged fellow Olympic medalist Casey FitzRandolph by two-hundredths of a second in West Allis, Wis., to win the 1,500-meter race in the U.S. Long Track Speedskating Team competition.

•Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States won the men’s 500-meter sprint in Beijing, finishing in 43.663 seconds, to take his second gold at the world short track speedskating championships.

•Joseph Dorsey Jr., a boxer who won a 1957 fight against Louisiana’s law banning interracial bouts, has died in New Orleans of cancer. He was 69.