Holmberg claims scoring award
Hockey: Mitch Holmberg of the Spokane Chiefs has captured the Bob Clarke Trophy for leading the Western Hockey League in regular-season scoring. Holmberg had 62 goals and 56 assists for 118 points in 72 games, becoming the first Chiefs player to lead the league in scoring since Ray Whitney in 1990-91.
Holmberg led all WHL players in goals, power play goals with 23, and finished tied for second with six shorthanded goals. He also shared the league lead with 10 game-winning goals.
He is Spokane’s franchise leader with 147 career goals.
Runners will induct Audain
Running: Anne Audain, who dominated women’s competition at Bloomsday from 1981 through 1990, will be inducted into the Road Runners Club of America Hall of Fame during the RRCA’s annual convention on Bloomsday weekend.
Audain joins Ken Martin, one of the nation’s top marathon runners of the 1980s, in the RRCA’s 2014 Hall of Fame class.
Audain, a one-time world record holder at 5,000 meters, won more American road races (75) than any other male or female runner in the ‘80s, including wins at Bloomsday in 1981, ’82, ’83, ’85, ’86, ’88 and ’90.
Audain, originally from New Zealand, became an American citizen in 1995 and lives in Evansville, Ind.
Kato doubles up at Turf Paradise
Horse racing: Akifumi Kato, the all-time leader for victories at Spokane’s former Playfair Race Course, won both ends of Sunday’s daily double at Turf Paradise in Phoenix. Kato, 61, swelled his career win total to 2,010.
Primarily a bloodstock agent and jockey equipment dealer for the last two decades, Kato only rides during the Arizona winter season. Sunday, he took Marlene’s Obsession wire-to-wire to win the first race for a $23.20 payoff and had a similar front-running trip on Frisky Ricky ($11.20) in the second. The horses combined for an $86.40 daily double.
Kato’s daughter, Kaylyn Kato, trains Frisky Ricky. She saddled She’s a Hit last April when her father reached a milestone with his 2,000th career win. Kato began riding at Playfair as an apprentice in 1973.