Ohno Zone

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December 4, 2004

500m medalists in Saguenay

Apolo Ohno (silver), Mathieu Turcotte (gold), Jiajun Li (bronze)

Allison Baver (silver), Meng Wang (gold), Evgenia Radanova (bronze)

Posted by noelle at 8:01 PM | Comments (7)

500m final: Apolo looks for racing room

These are from the early laps of the race.

Peeking out between Pieter Gysel and Jiajun Li

An instant later

Posted by noelle at 7:56 PM | Comments (2)

Apolo prepares to skate his 500m final

Posted by noelle at 7:50 PM | Comments (3)

500m finals - silver for Ohno and Baver!

It's so draining to watch these races in person. The ladies' final was another wild affair. Kalyna Roberge went down very hard when Tianyu Fu (I think) spun out of control ahead of her. With both skaters out of contention, Allison Baver, who had a bad start, pulled a Steven Bradbury in a way and wound up with silver. She certainly more than earned it with her strong racing throughout the qualification rounds.

Roberge is going to be ok. It was another frightening situation as EMTs attended to her crumpled body and brought out a stretcher. After several moments though she was helped to her feet and was able to skate off the ice under her own power. What a relief!

Apolo's race was a nail-biter. He got off to a bad start when contact with another skater sent him to the outside and back. He managed to make up 2 positions by the next lap and then passed Jiajun Li for silver.

The crowd here is deafening when Canadian skater are on the ice, and Mathieu Turcotte's well-earned victory absolutely brought the house down here. He skated to the side of the rink and called his girfriend and I believe his parents down for hugs and kisses. He also took several victory laps, saluting the crowd for its support.

Update: Turcotte commented on his recent rivalry with Apolo today:

I think Anton Ohno and I have a pretty good rivalry going. I don't really change my race strategy if he's in the final but we're certainly keeping an eye on each other.

Read more.

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And look who was out on the ice moments ago, practicing exchanges during relay warmups with Travis Jayner -- and looking good as new!

[Clarification: Though Rusty was on the ice doing warmups, he did not skate the relay. Not completely sure why he was warming up this afternoon, but it was good to see him out there skating some medium-fast laps and practicing exchanges.]

Posted by noelle at 3:26 PM | Comments (52)

Apolo Ohno chases Takehiro Kodera (500m prelim)

Posted by noelle at 1:39 PM | Comments (6)

500m preliminary - introducing Felipe Souza of Brazil

The Brazilian speedskater Felipe Souza made his debut today in Apolo's 500m prelim race. The first thing I noticed is that he's pretty tall. the second thing is that he appears to be quite a bit older than the average short track skater. Somewhere north of 30, I would guess (although I'm a notoriously bad guesser of ages).

When he was announced for the race he drew a big round of applause. It has to take some courage to get out there and skate because it's not unfair to say that Souza isn't the most elegant skater and seems to still be learning his technique (that more of an understatement). The fact that he got lapped in his 500m prelim gives you an idea. So Brazil's entry is a bit reminiscent of the Jamaican bobsled team, or Eddie the Eagle in ski jumping.

When Souza finished the race, he got a big hand again as he's done skating for today...

Posted by noelle at 1:31 PM | Comments (12)

Men's 1500m medalists in Saguenay

Mathieu Turcotte (silver), Apolo Anton Ohno (gold), Steve Robillard (bronze)

Posted by noelle at 1:40 AM | Comments (18)

Women's 1500m medalists in Sagunay

Allison Baver (silver), Wang Wei (gold), Hyo-jung Kim (bronze)

Posted by noelle at 1:38 AM | Comments (4)

World Cup Saguenay Day 1

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone, as Yano had posted I couldn't get online from the arena. It didn't end till 11pm or so and then Ihad to eat. It's now too late for me to try to post anything as extensive as I normally would!

But as you know, it was another great day at the races for the USA with Apolo Ohno taking 1500m gold and Allison Baver and Hyo-jung Kim silver and bronze, respectively. Unfortunately the U.S. women missed out on qualifying for the relay semifinals due to an unfortunate fall. The men skated a solid race with newcomer Travis Jayner making a solid debut. Although yesterday I had been told Travis would start the relay in place of Rusty, it was in fact Shani Davis who started for the U.S.

Japan and the U.S. prepare for an exchange


So who got there first? The U.S., by 0.16 seconds.

Apolo's 1500m heat was wild affair with a thrilling contest among Apolo, Steve Robillard, and Haonan Li. Apolo started off in last place. With the local kids chanting 'Canada, Canada' whenever a Canadian skater took the ice, it seemed there was no way that Robillard was not going to win this heat after teammates Mathieu Turcotte and Charles Hamelin won theirs, and with those kids' chants ringing in his ears.

That left a battle for 2nd between Li and Apolo and it wasn't clear till the end who would win. There were some really uh, inspired moves by all 3 skaters in this race and I imagine if Robillard and Ohno hadn't both finished in qualifyig position, there could possibly have been some DQs. (Or not.)

The women's 1500m semifinals were even more wild! Falls and DQ's everywhere. In Hyo-jung's semi, first the Netherlands skater fell on her own, followed by Yang Yang A. Next Amanda overland went flying and took Kim with her. In a nice show of sportsmanship, Amanda reached out to Kim to make sure she was okay as both shaken-up skaters completed their race. There were no disqualifications, but Kim was rightly advanced to the final.

Amanda Overland reaches out to Hyo-jung Kim

Allison's semi was just as crazy. Allison skated a beautiful race. Before the multi-skater pileup happened, as I recall it, Allison had been skating along in 2nd behind Meng Wang, and looking for an opening to pass her for the lead for several laps. The crash occurred as Alanna Kraus made a move to pass Allison. Both skaters fell, and Kraus and the French skater were disqualified for impeding, and Allison advanced to the final.

Luckily the men's finals weren't quite as eventful because the main thing I remember was that Shani suffered a slip in his semifinal, and recovered from 4th place to finish 2nd. Shanis' slip would have turned into a crash for most other skaters and they'd have been out of the running.

Men's 1500m final

The finals were amazing, with another thrilling battle between Apolo and Mathieu Turcotte. It was a North American podium, with Apolo winning, Turcotte 2nd and Robillard 3rd.

Ohno and Turcotte about to cross the finish line

pictures to come

Hyo-jung shows off her medal

Posted by noelle at 12:40 AM | Comments (20)

Bonus photo

From warmups this Friday morning

Posted by noelle at 12:35 AM | Comments (12)

December 2, 2004

Schedule for World Cup #4

The schedule for this weekend's World Cup is as follows (all times Eastern standard):

Day 1, Friday
5pm: 1500m heats
7pm: opening ceremony'
7:30pm: 1500m semis and finals followed by relay heats

Day 2, Saturday
11:30am: 500m preliminaries and heats
2pm: 500m quarters, semis and finals; relay semis

Day 3, Sunday
11am: 1000m heats
2pm: 1000m quarters, semis and finals; 3000m superfinals; relay finals

Useful links:
- Official web site: World Cup Short Track Saguenay
- Cyberscoreboard
- Live Cyberscoreboard

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The Centre Georges-Vezina is decorated for Christmas. The awards podium even has several lifesize nutcrackers flanking the sides! Garlands along the stands (not to mention the winter wonderland outside) make for a festive atmosphere.

The event organizers have also taken pains with the medals themselves. Medal winners here are advised that 'since the medals are fragile, hold them at the base.' They were designed by a Quebecois sculptor and glassblower named Giuseppe Benedetto. Can't wait to see how they look!

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Update Friday 2:30pm
Ticket sales are apparently brisk. The arena seats 3100 and as of this morning about 2400 tickets for today's events had been sold (including 200 tix sold in 1 hour this morning). Sales are well over 2000 so far for Sat. and Sun. as well. Should be a great crowd, and they are promising us wonderful opening ceremonies at 7pm also.

There is a local newpaper article saying the Slovakian organizers for World Cup #6 as well as a Chinese delegation are here observing and learning. The Saguenay organizers have a great reputation for putting on these events!

Posted by noelle at 10:27 PM | Comments (15)

Say hello to two new members of Team USA

U.S. team brings Alice Kim and Travis Jayner to Saguenay

US Speedskating arranged for 5th skaters to attend World Cup #4! Within the past couple of days, Derrick Campbell brought Travis Jayner and Alice Kim from Quebec City to join the rest of the team here in Chicoutimi. And sure enough, there they were at this morning's team practice!

Travis was #4 and Alice was #5 at American Cup 1, making them the next skaters in line for World Cup team spots. Welcome, and thanks to them both for being available to represent the USA on short notice! Fortunately for Travis, he didn't have far to go (he lives in Montreal). Alice presumably traveled from Los Angeles.

This is great news -- thanks to USS for making this happen!

The bad news is that Rusty didn't skate with the team this morning. Derrick says that he skated yesterday, but still has limited movement due to his hard crash last week in Madison. A decision is expected tonight as to whether he will skate on Friday, making Travis's presence even more critical. If Rusty doesn't skate, Travis will lead off the relay for the U.S.

By the way, Travis deserves a lot of credit because as far as I know he's never trained with the U.S. team and may be meeting some of his teammates for the first time this week. It's quite a way to get your feet wet!

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This morning the stands were packed with local schoolkids on a field trip of sorts to watch the practice. It was a heartwarming sight to see them waving U.S. flags they had fashioned from recycled shopping bags, and even wearing Uncle Sam hats!

I know there is a lot of anti-American feeling in Canada right now, but you wouldn't believe it to see those kids (nor from the universally kind treatment we've been getting here). They were cheeing and shouting every bit as enthusiastically as if it was the Olympic Games! There was someone to address the kids, demonstrating the different gear skaters wear and the equipment they use, explaining how they work, what skinsuits are for, how the sport works and so on.

At the end they kept shouting 'A-po-lo! A-po-lo!' and he obliged by spending time slapping hands and signing autographs. Travis, who speaks French skated over too and pretty soon he was being mobbed also.

click images to enlarge

The organizing committee organized this with the local schools, and it made quite an impression. This kind of thing recruits new athletes and fans to the sport. I'm sure many of them will be back to watch the races!

'Interactive' is an overused term of the Internet-age, but what those kids had was a true interactive experience, of the low-tech kind.

Posted by noelle at 12:22 PM | Comments (23)

Photos of Apolo preparing for the 1500m in Madison

Thanks to Sue for these photos!

Posted by noelle at 12:18 PM | Comments (6)

Posted by noelle at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

December 1, 2004

Greetings from Chicoutimi!

Steve Robillard gets affectionate with Guy Thibault, along with Charles Hamelin, Flou Tremblay, Jo Guilmette, Mathieu Turcotte. Is that Martin Gagne hiding back there? (courtesy Nick of SusanG report fame). click to enlarge

Is this a good-lookin' bunch of guys, or what?!

By the way, it's a winter wonderland here. Snow is falling hard with about 4 inches accumulation so far, but that doesn't faze airplanes or drivers around these parts. Not a bit!

Posted by noelle at 11:23 PM | Comments (19)

November 30, 2004

SusanG's Madison Day 3 report and photos

Click to read SusanG's report.

Apolo and NorCal skater Nick at the banquet

Apolo signs Nick's boot

Posted by noelle at 9:25 PM | Comments (23)

Thanks to Sue for this set of photos from Madison!

Posted by noelle at 11:25 AM | Comments (17)

Posted by noelle at 11:24 AM | Comments (2)

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Posted by noelle at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

Mathieu Turcotte seems to have become a fan favorite in Madison

Posted by noelle at 11:22 AM | Comments (8)

November 29, 2004

Men's 1000m medal ceremony in Madison

Thanks to Yano for this photo!

Mathieu Turcotte (silver), Apolo Ohno (gold), Charles Hamelin (bronze)

Posted by noelle at 11:20 PM | Comments (7)

Brazil to compete at World Cup #4?

The official World Cup Short Track Saguenay web site indicates that Brazil has entered one skater -- Felipe Souza -- in next weekend's World Cup.

How's that for something new and different?

Posted by noelle at 9:11 PM | Comments (2)

Madison World Cup day 3 - press roundup

WI State Journal | United States, Ohno rule day

Apolo Ohno on Allison Baver and Hyo-jung Kim: "There's never been any women in speedskating like them in the history of the U.S..They've brought a whole new level in terms of the U.S. team competing."

Mathieu Turcotte on his 3000m DQ: "In my mind, it was (a) 50-50 chance of disqualification. It was a very close pass, not to say a bad pass, but I had to do it because that was my chance to win."

Apolo Ohno on the 1000m final: "Those Canadians are fast," Ohno said of Turcotte and Charles Hamelin. "(The 1,000 meters) is almost like a lengthened 500 meters in the fact that it is just so fast and everybody is trying to move around and get position. I was lucky enough to get in a good position and pass a guy in the end."

US Speedskating | Ohno, Kim Wow the Madison Crowd with Gold Medals

Derrick Campbell: "I’m very happy with the women’s performance. They are our bright spot in the future. They skated a very smart race."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Ohno glides to two golds; Olympic hero looks ready for anything

Hyo-jung Kim: "This is my first final and first medal. I can’t believe it. I didn’t expect to win. I just wanted to do my best."

Capital Times | Ohno shines

Apolo Ohno: "I was a little angry with my 500-meter performance. I really wanted to come in here with a mean attitude and take home some medals."

Capital Times | Low turnout proves disappointing

Mathieu Turcotte: "I was expecting something like last year [in Marquette]. But this rink is pretty big, so it's different. There's a whole lot of reasons (why the turnout was low) that I don't know. But all I can tell you is that we liked the crowd. This crowd was great. It was just the number that was lacking."

Posted by noelle at 8:40 PM | Comments (5)

U.S. coaches said to seek permission to bring a 5th skater to Saguenay

So the latest word out of Madison is that the U.S. coaches are asking permission (not sure who from -- USS? the ISU?) to let the team bring a 5th skater to Saguenay. The team won't know for a few days whether Rusty Smith will be fit enough to skate the relay at next weekend's World Cup meet in Saguenay.

Hopefully permission will be granted! It was such a shame that no alternate was available to sub for Rusty in the relay in Madison. In order to make sure the U.S. can field a relay team in Saguenay, it's critical that they be allowed to take a 5th skater.

It's also important for them to compete in order to earn points to qualify in the relay for the 2005 World Championships in Beijing!

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Coach insults ref, gets yellow card

image courtesy Redpac

Another interesting tidbit is that a coach reportedly got yellow carded yesterday. It happened during the 1000m heat that had to be halted and restarted after a crash involving Latvia and the Netherlands. Apparently the coach in question was protesting the way the reskate was being handled. The ref overruled the coach, then the coach insulted the ref, so they showed him a yellow card and (I guess) he was thrown out of the competition.

Posted by noelle at 11:27 AM | Comments (12)

November 28, 2004

Thanks are in order

Many, many thanks to all those who were generous with their time and contributed to the coverage from Madison: Barb, correspondent-in-chief Bernadette, DeniseD, Jan, Kimo, Pablo, Sonia, SusanG, Yano, and to everyone who shared tidbits in the comments.

Apologies if I've overlooked anyone. Errors/inaccuracies in the coverage are mine alone.

More to come soon as race videos and photos become available!

Posted by noelle at 8:38 PM | Comments (20)

1000m photos from the AP

Charles Hamelin, Mathieu Turcotte, Apolo Ohno in the 1000m final

Hyo-jung Kim celebrates her 1000m win

Posted by noelle at 7:19 PM | Comments (3)

GOLD RUSH IN MADISON!

Ohno and Kim win 1000m gold;
Ohno wins 3000m gold and overall title

The weekend's overall titles were settled with the 3000m superfinals. Apolo Ohno was looking for the win over Mathieu Turcotte in order to lock in his lead, and he got it when Turcotte, who crossed the finish line first ahead of Ohno, was disqualified. Shani Davis, who finished 5th in the 3000m, also ended the weekend in 5th overall -- I think this is his best World Cup performance to date.

In the women's 3000m, Hyo-jung Kim had an outside chance of winning the overall title. Going into the 3000m Yang Yang A had the overall lead, Kim was 2nd overall, and there was a 4-way tie for third among Marta Capurso, Allison Baver, Meng Wang, and Evgenia Radanova.

Yang, not needing the points herself, didn't contest the race, conceding the win to teammate Wang. Wang's gold in the 3000m was enough to vault her ahead of Kim for second overall. Kim, 3000m silver medalist, is third overall, and Baver, third in the 3000m, is 4th overall for the weekend.

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Congrats to all the U.S. skaters for their thrilling performances this weekend, to Apolo for all his victories plus the overall title, and to Allison, Hyo-jung and Shani for setting new personal records en route to their best-ever World Cup performances! (Very possible I've missed other records.)

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1000m finals

Congratulations to Apolo Ohno and Hyo-jung Kim, 1000m gold medalists today in Madison! Both gave amazing and consistent performances all day long to reach and win their finals.

For Kim, who just turned 16 earlier this month, this has been quite a weekend, as she earned new personal bests at two distances, set a new American record AND won her first World Cup medal -- a yellow one, no less! Currently #2 in the standings, she has an outside shot at taking the 3000m and with it the overall title.

Congratulations as well to 1000m silver medalist Amanda Overland of Canada. I believe this is her first individual World Cup medal!

Ohno now stands atop the leaderboard for the men, but the overall title won't be settled for sure till the 3000m final. Hang on, the ride ain't over yet!

Posted by noelle at 5:58 PM | Comments (23)

World Cup Madison Day 3 - 1000m quarters and semis

Davis, Kim and Ohno advance to 1000m final;
all-North American men's final

Semifinals
All three Americans qualified in their respective semi-finals to advance to today's men's and women's 1000m finals. Hyo-jung Kim won her semi, setting a new American record in the process. Shani Davis was 2nd in his and Apolo, who's really working the come-from-behind thing today, also won his semi.

In Ohno's semi, Charles Hamelin was advanced to the final after being knocked down towards the end by Jiajun Li, who was disqualified.

Both the USA and Canada are guaranteed medals in the men's 1000m final with a fabulous lineup of Davis and Ohno for the USA and Guilmette, Hamelin and Turcotte for Canada. This race will break the tie between Ohno and Turcotte for the overall title this weekend -- though depending on the outcome of this race, it may still be up for grabs in the men's 3000m.

Quarterfinals
Allison Baver skated the first third of her 1000m quarterfinal race in 4th place. When she passed into 2nd with 5-6 laps to go, she evidently tangled with Alanna Kraus causing Kraus to fall. Baver was subsequently disqualified, and Kraus advanced to the semifinals.

In her quarterfinal, Hyo-jung Kim took the lead with 6 laps to go and never let go. She and Amanda Overland crossed the finish line 1-2, leading to the early elimination of China's second top threat, Meng Wang. (Yang Yang A was disqualified in the first round).

Fabio Carta led his quarterfinal for the entire race, with Shani Davis right behind. They switched places just at the finish, and both skaters move on to the semis.

Apolo Ohno and Jonathan Guilmette both advance from their quarterfinal heat. Guilmette was at or near the front for most of the race and won the heat. Ohno on the other hand was at or near the back for 8 laps till he moved up to second behind Guilmette in the final lap. He wants to keep us on the edge of our seats, that one!

Posted by noelle at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

World Cup Madison Day 3 - 1000m qualifying heats

Women's heats
Allison Baver spent most of her race in 3rd place behind Tianyu Fu and Yuka Kamino, coming from behind to win her heat.

Jade Wheeler had a tough row to hoe against the likes of Evgenia Radanova, Alanna Kraus and Yvonne Kunze (GER). Jade managed to cross the line in 3rd but was subsquently disqualified.

Hyo-jung Kim skated a very strong heat, in first for most of the race until she was overtaken at the line by both Nina Evteeva (RUS) and Yang Yang A. Yang was subsequently disqualified, allowing Kim to advance. While Yang is no stranger to DQs, this is the first time she's been DQ'ed in a qualifying round since 1999.

Men's prelims
Apolo Ohno and Shani Davis easily won their 1000m prelim heats to move on to the next round. However, the men's preliminaries weren't entirely smooth sailing.

Substituting for Rusty Smith, Alex Izykowski suffered an unfortunate fall and won't advance. He fell on his own with 7 laps to go... not sure if he is having equipment problems or an attack of nerves since he wasn't expecting to race individual distances this weekend. Better luck next week in Canada!

Heat 8 -- the only one with 5 skaters -- was a little strange. With about 2-3 laps to go, Latvia fell down, taking the Netherlands with him. The race was halted when NED skater Versteeg had to be helped off the ice. As the skaters regrouped for a reskate, it was announced that Versteeg was able to skate again also.

The end result turned out the way it appeared it would the first time around, with Charles Hamelin and Denis Bellotti (ITA) taking 1st and 2nd, Latvia beind disqualified and last place for the shaken-up Dutchman.

Posted by noelle at 2:53 PM | Comments (2)

World Cup Madison Day 2 - press roundup

WI State Journal | Turcotte, Yang skate to wins

Attendance is definitely trending up in Madison:

Saturday's event sold 2,150 tickets, putting the weekend total at 3,900. Event organizers hope that number balloons for today's finale. "The crowd is loud," Mathieu Turcotte said. "But imagine the place being full. It would be incredible."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Ohno salvages day for Americans

This paper is under the impression that long track and short track are the same thing. (Check out their standings below the article, where World Cup long track and short track results are all jumbled together. Chad Hedrick is listed as having won the 1500m in Madison and a mysterious new distance of 5000m was won by Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands!)

*sigh* I can't decide if I'm more amused, or more irritated!

CBC Sports | Turcotte wins World Cup short-track gold

Mathieu Turcotte: "I had a great start and my first couple of laps were very strong but at the end I started to slow down and the gap started to close. We were disappointed not to win a race at the first two World Cups and we're expecting to do really well this weekend."

AP | Yang skates to another World Cup victory

“Yesterday, I was lucky and today I won because of my experience," Yang said of her two straight victories.

Posted by noelle at 10:01 AM | Comments (6)