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Meissner glides, Cohen falls at worlds

By wire services
Published March 26, 2006

CALGARY, Alberta - America has a world champion - Kimmie Meissner , not Sasha Cohen .

Following the tradition of teenage American women pulling off big upsets, the 16-year-old Meissner used the performance of her life Saturday to soar to the World Figure Skating Championships title.

And following a distressing trend, U.S. champion Cohen fell apart again in a free skate, winding up third overall behind Japan's Fumie Suguri .

Meissner landed seven triple jumps, including two triple triple combinations - the only ones of the day. Cohen landed only two clean jumps and fell on her final one, a salchow.

Electrocutionist wins

Electrocutionist roared past Brass Hat in the stretch and won the $6-million Dubai World Cup, giving the royal family of Dubai a victory in front of a home crowd.

Despite leaving from the unfavorable inside post in the 11-horse field, Electrocutionist was moved outside by jockey Frankie Dettori to set up a thrilling finish.

With U.S.-based Brass Hat and Wilko fighting for the lead, Electrocutionist came blazing past on the outside to earn the winner's share of $3.6-million for Sheik Mohammed's Godolphin Racing.

Electrocutionist won by 11/4 lengths.

MORE HORSE RACING: With a City , the biggest longshot on the board, won the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes at 48-1 odds at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. With a City, with Brice Blanc aboard, burst between horses at the top of the stretch and beat Seaside Retreat to the wire in the first major Kentucky Derby prep to be run on Polytrack, an all-weather synthetic surface. The 3-year-old colt ran the 11/8 miles in 1:51. ... High Cotton , trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Chris DeCarlo , won the $100,000 Rushaway Stakes at Turfway.

Reading moving up

Reading clinched promotion to the Premier League with a 1-1 draw at Leicester in the League Championship. The club, founded in 1871, will play next season in the top flight of English soccer.

"We had a tremendous year," manager Steve Coppell said.

With Leicester leading 1-0 on Iain Hume's 38th-minute goal, Kevin Doyle tied it in the 85th. The goal meant promotion for the club that includes American midfielder Bobby Convey and countryman Marcus Hahnemann in goal.

Rust too much for Clijsters

Playing for the first time in more than a month, Kim Clijsters said she felt rusty, and it showed.

The defending champion at the Nasdaq-100 Open squandered leads in the first and final sets and lost to former Florida Gator and NCAA champion f,8.5,ux0,,10.3 Jill Craybas , 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.

Clijsters double-faulted 11 times and committed 78 unforced errors.

Craybas, ranked 54th, won the final four games of the opening set and overcame a 4-2 deficit in the last set.

In men's second-round play, No. 9-seeded James Blake of Tampa was a 6-0, 6-0 winner over Carlos Berlocq .

SKIING: Bode Miller won the U.S. Alpine Championship downhill title on the same Carrabassett Valley, Maine, slope where he qualified for the national ski team 10 years ago.

[Last modified March 26, 2006, 00:26:15]