Olympics: Takagi accepts bitter fate after 1,500 hopes slip away late

MILAN - Looking like a title contender through the early laps, Japan's 10-time Olympic speed skating medalist Miho Takagi saw her hopes of a long-coveted women's 1,500 meters gold medal fade near the finish line Friday as she placed sixth at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.

With the second-fastest splits at 300, 700 and 1,100 meters in the 29-woman field at Milano Speed Skating Stadium, Takagi appeared to execute her plan perfectly over the distance she calls "a complex discipline" contested by both sprint and long-distance specialists.