BY JO-ANN BARNAS
DETROIT FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
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The upcoming World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo were the furthest thing from Yuka Sato's mind when her husband, Jason Dungjen, woke her up this morning in their Waterford home.
She learned that a devastating tsunami from a magnitude 8.9 earthquake had slammed into her homeland's eastern coast, near Sendai city.
Sato, the 1994 ladies world figure skating champion from Japan who coaches with Dungjen at the Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills, immediately thought of her parents, who live in Yokohama, more than 200 miles to the south.
At the time of the quake, Nobuo Sato and his wife, Kumiko -- two of Japan's preeminent figure skating coaches -- were teaching their students in different cities.
It took some time, but Yuka Sato learned that both were safe, as was her brother, Masanobu Sato, 36, who works in Tokyo.
"My mom was over in Toyota City -- Chuckyo University -- which is where Takahiko (Kozuka) and Mao (Asada) train, that's outskirts of Nagoya," said Yuko Sato. "It was shaking hard, but no damages."
Kozuka is the reigning men's Japanese champion, and Asada is the 2010 Olympic silver medalist and two-time ladies world champion.
"My dad, who was teaching in Yokohama, he e-mailed me -- the e-mailing system works, the cell phone does not -- and he said when he was teaching, it shook for than 10 minutes. He said he couldn't stand still. He had to grab by the boards, and reach over and then sit down on the bench."
Yuka Sato said that her parents have been communicating with each other via e-mail only; they're unable to contact each other by phone.
"It's just major chaos, very scary," Yuka Sato said. "Tokyo seems to be fine, but the traffic right now is horrible. My brother couldn't get home, so he's going to stay at work overnight."
Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of Detroit time.
Yuka Sato is among several coaches of more than a dozen local skaters who are preparing for the world championships March 20-27 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium near Tokyo. She and Dungjen coach U.S. ladies champion Alissa Czisny and 2010 Olympian Jeremy Abbott, who's an alternate in the men's event.
There are seven ice dance teams that train in the Detroit area -- including the reigning Olympic gold and silver medalists, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, and Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White -- that have qualified for the world championships. Five of the seven teams scheduled to travel to Tokyo train at the Arctic Figure Skating Club in Canton. Most of the skaters from the Detroit SC and Arctic FSC were preparing to leave March 20-21.
As of late this morning, the world championship are still on, according to International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta.
"The ISU received an e-mail message from the head office of the Japan Skating Federation informing that one of their representatives had visted Yoyogi stadium and considered it suitable to host" the world championships, Cinquanta said in a statement.
"The said communication from the (JSF) informs that the situation in Tokyo is settled and seems to be in-line for conducting the Championships.
"However the message of the head office of the JSF points out that the Narita Airport is closed. . . in the meantime the ISU wishes to remind that the ISU World Figure Skating Championships are scheduled to commence with the practice sessions on March 20, 2011.
"The ISU, while expressing its sympathy to the Japan entities, is confident that the local conditions will permit to regularly conduct the event."
U.S. Figure Skating also issued a statement early this afternoon, saying that the organization is monitoring the situation in Japan with the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Japanese skating federation.
"First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by
this tragedy," the release said.