Japan world race shelved amid nuclear fears

Japan's nuclear reactor crisis has forced the postponement of a world championship triathlon race in Yokohama next month because of radiation fears, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) said on Tuesday.

The race, originally scheduled for May 14, would require athletes to swim 1.5 km in Yokohama harbour, some 300 km south of the Fukushima nuclear plant crippled by last month's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami wave.

"The safety and health of our athletes, coaches, officials and staff should not be compromised," Marisol Casado, ITU president and IOC member, said in a statement.

"We have been following the situation in Japan very closely and felt that once the Japanese government raised the alert on the nuclear situation to the highest level of 7, it was too risky to stage an event there in May.

"We are in discussions to re-schedule it later in the season. Our thoughts and concerns are with the Japanese people as they recover from the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant situation."

Workers battling to avoid a catastrophic meltdown at the nuclear plant have been forced to pump large amounts of radioactive water into the sea.

The ITU had said the race, which offers Olympic qualification points, would go ahead as scheduled unless data showed contamination or a potential risk to athletes.

Olympic champion Jan Frodeno had been among the first to criticise the ITU's decision not to immediately pull the plug on the race following the disaster in Japan.

The March 11 quake and tsunami left 28,000 people dead or missing and destroyed vast areas of northeastern Japan.