Sports in brief: Torch ignited for Vancouver Winter Games
Olympics: The flame for the Vancouver Olympics was lit by the sun’s rays in an ancient ceremony Thursday at Ancient Olympia, Greece, heralding the start of the torch relay for the 2010 Winter Games.
The sun shone just enough over the fallen temples at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics for a Greek actress in a pagan priestess’ white gown and sandals to focus its rays on a silver torch using a concave mirror. The flame will burn at the Feb. 12-28 Vancouver Games, following a torch relay across Canada and a shorter run in Greece.
“More than just a sporting event, the Games offer us a unique moment to serve the cause of humanity and celebrate the human spirit,” Vancouver Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong said.
Greek giant slalom skier Vassilis Dimitriadis, 31, was the first torchbearer to run out of the ancient stadium after accepting the flame from actress Maria Nafpliotou. After an eight-day journey across Greece, the torch will be handed over to Canadian officials at the restored ancient Panathenaean Stadium in Athens on Thursday.
It will reach Canada on Oct. 30 for what organizers say will be the largest national relay starting in Victoria, British Columbia, and involving 12,000 torchbearers.
Over 106 days, the torch will be flown as far north as the Alert forestry station in Nunavut, which at some 500 miles from the North Pole is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world.
Although cauldrons were lit during the ancient games, held in Olympia from 776 B.C. to 394 A.D, the torch relay is a modern addition to the Olympics. It began during the 1936 Berlin Games, and debuted at the Winter Games at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics.
Sim has big lead at Nationwide
Golf: Michael Sim had eight straight birdies and finished with a course-record 8-under-par 64 to take a three-stroke lead in the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island in Charleston, S.C.
Sim, the Australian who has won three times this year and tops the money list with a record $536,142, fell one short of matching the tour record for consecutive birdies set by Omar Uresti at the 1994 Shreveport Open.
The birdie run ended on the par-3 12th when Sim’s 30-footer stopped inches short.
Andrew Buckle and Justin Bolli opened with 67s, and D.J. Brigman and Adam Bland had 68s on the Ralston Creek Course.
Spokane’s Alex Prugh opened with a 74.
•O’Hern atop leaderboard: Brandishing a hot putter on a warm afternoon, Australian Nick O’Hern cruised to a career-low 63 and the first-round lead in the Frys.com Open at Scottsdale, Ariz.
O’Hern, who finished at 7 under, putted only nine times while posting a 28 on the par-35 back nine at Grayhawk Golf Club. Eight of O’Hern’s nine birdies came in that stretch.
Bob Heintz and Heath Slocum were one stroke back at 64.
Huge second period helps Capitals to win
Jeff Schultz, Matt Bradley and Chris Clark scored in an 88-second span of the second period, and Semyon Varlamov stopped 22 shots to help the Washington Capitals defeat the Thrashers at Atlanta.
Eric Fehr and Alexandre Giroux had first-period goals for the Capitals. Alex Ovechkin was held without a point for only the second time in nine games.
•Devils upend Rangers: Dainius Zubrus tipped in Zach Parise’s soft shot 7:51 into the third period and the New Jersey Devils remained undefeated on the road with a 4-2 victory over the Rangers in New York.
Veteran umpires will work World Series
Baseball: Stung by a rash of blown calls in the playoffs, Major League Baseball is breaking tradition and sticking with only experienced umpires for the World Series.
Longtime crew chiefs Joe West, Dana DeMuth and Gerry Davis, along with Brian Gorman, Jeff Nelson and Mike Everitt will handle the games, three people with knowledge of the decision told the Associated Press this week.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not been made.
In 24 of the last 25 World Series, the six-man crew has included at least one umpire working the event for the first time – baseball likes to reward newer umpires, plus replenish the supply of umps with Series experience.
•Dodgers fire McCourt after seperation: A lawyer for Dodgers CEO Jamie McCourt said she has been fired after her marital separation from the team’s owner.
McCourt and team owner Frank McCourt separated earlier this month.
Attorney Dennis Wasser said Jamie McCourt is disappointed and saddened by her termination. He said she’ll address her firing in court.
California seeks NFL team in Los Angeles
Football: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he has signed a bill allowing the construction of a 75,000-seat stadium that developers hope will lure an NFL team back to the Los Angeles area.
Schwarzenegger said he signed the environmental exemption bill last week but saved the announcement for a news conference in Industry, Calif., where the stadium would be built, about 15 miles east of Los Angeles.
The bill nullifies a lawsuit filed by residents in nearby Walnut over the project’s environmental impact.