Ohno Zone

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February 26, 2005

500m medalists in Milwaukee

The women's 500m medalists, looking lovely in red, white and blue!
Allison Baver (silver), Halie Kim (gold), Carly Wilson (bronze)

The men's 500m medalists are awfully serious...
J.P. Kepka (silver), Apolo Ohno (gold), Shani Davis (bronze)

... but it doesn't last!

The shock of the day is that Rusty Smith isn't on the medal stand. Because he finished 3rd in his semifinal, Rusty skated in the B final, which he won handily. Afterwards, Andy Gabel interviewed Rusty for College Sports Network, which will air the U.S. Championships at a future date.

Although clearly not happy with his performance today, Rusty sounded philosophical about what happened today and noted that his semi included 4 strong skaters (Shani, Travis Jayner and J.P.) and I believe Rusty also started from lane 4. He also said his goal is to come back tomorrow and win the 1000m.

Young autograph seekers besiege Apolo right after he winns the 500m

Apolo seemed to just breeze through all his races today! In his semifinal, Jordan Malone had a wild-looking slip on the ice in the last lap or so, which took him out of contention. In the final, nobody was getting around Apolo in the lead and J.P. in 2nd, so the fight was between Shani and Alex Izykowski for bronze. Shani got around Alex for bronze and a strong performance he really needed after his semifinal DQ yesterday.

After his 500m victory, Apolo was also interviewed. Andy asked Apolo if he found it more fun or relaxing to skate in domestic competitions since he has no real rival. Apolo said 'a little bit' but that he can't relax too much because it's the World Team trials and his goal here is to finish every race 1st or 2nd. I can't remember the exact word he used, but Apolo also mentioned something to the effect that he doesn't feel as 'on' when he isn't skating internationally.

[updated] Here are the official overall standings after today:

Men's overall (tentative): 1. Apolo Ohno, 2. J.P. Kepka, 3. Rusty Smith, 4. Alex Izykowski, 5. Shani Davis, 6. Jordan Malone, 7. Travis Jayner

I'm not sure I get how Malone is ahead of Jayner at this point.

Women's overall: 1. Hyo-jung Kim, 2. Allison Baver, 3. Brigid Farrell, 4. Carly Wilson, 5. Kristen Biondo, 6. Lezleigh Jaworski, 7. Tina Koenig

Full result available at USSpeedskating.org

Photos from the men's and women's 500m A finals - click to enlarge

A nice AP article on today's events:Ohno, Kim win again at the U.S. short track championships

Posted by noelle at 11:49 PM | Comments (13)

By request -- behind the scenes!

Apolo Ohno suits up

J.P. Kepka and Apolo wait to step onto the ice for their 500m quarterfinal

Travis Jayner and Anthony Lobello look for a better view of the action

Bridie Farrell suits up

Posted by noelle at 8:53 PM | Comments (10)

Apolo at warmups

Posted by noelle at 8:38 PM | Comments (1)

By request!

Izy at warmups

And out in front of Jordan Malone and Kyle Carr in his 500m quarter final (Izy won it)

Posted by noelle at 8:38 PM | Comments (3)

Men's 1500m medalists in Milwaukee

Thanks to Yano for this awesome shot of Rusty, Apolo and J.P. on the medal stand!

Posted by noelle at 9:53 AM | Comments (6)

1500m final

caption: Apolo Ohno of Seattle competes in the men's 1,500-meter final during the U.S. short-track speedskating championships yesterday in Milwaukee.

photo credit: JAMIE SQUIRE / GETTY IMAGES via Seattle Times

Posted by noelle at 9:50 AM | Comments (4)

Milwaukee Day 2 photos

Many thanks to Kelly for sharing some of her photos from today! This is her first time shooting short track - great job, Kelly!

I believe these are from Apolo's semifinal.

Apolo Ohno, Kyle Carr, Travis Jayner, Shani Davis, Mike Kooreman

click thumbnails to enlarge

Posted by noelle at 1:04 AM | Comments (8)

Associated Press | Ohno and Kim win speedskating races

[updated Saturday morning]

Sounds like things got a little dicey out there today!

[Apolo] Ohno, who is the top-ranked skater in the world, charged from fifth to first midway through [the men's 1500m A final], beating out Rusty Smith.... Ohno crossed the line in 2 minutes, 22.949 seconds.

"The race was dangerous. Guys were passing all over the place," Ohno said. "At first, I kind of wanted to be up toward the front. But then I decided to kind of hang back. It was a kind of crazy race."

Full article

Also:

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel | Ohno, Kim triumph

'I've never seen a race that crazy at nationals.' - Apolo Ohno

Posted by noelle at 12:45 AM | Comments (3)

Milwaukee Day 2 (1500m)

[updated Sat. afternoon] - results from Friday are now online at US Speedskating's web site

Greetings from Milwaukee (where I've only just arrived after a 3.5 hour delay for the flight crew to arrive at Dulles...!) At this point I can only pass on the unofficial results already posted by ADumas (thanks again!). I think the word for today is predictable, overall.

Congratulations to Apolo for extending his winning streak, as well as to all the other top finishers -- and way to go, J.R. Celski, skating in the A final! J.R. is the young guy from Apolo's hometown of Federal Way who came 2nd at U.S. Juniors but wasn't able to go to Jr. Worlds because of his tender age (13 as of December 2004).

Unofficial results from today:

mens 1500m
1. Ohno
2. Smith
3. Kepka
4. Izykowski
5. Celski
DQ Kooreman
DQ Malone

overall
1. Ohno
2. Smith
3. Kepka
4. Izykowski
5. Malone
6. Celski
7. Jayner
8. Davis
9. Yun
9. Cox
9. Lobello

Womens' 1500m
1. Kim
2. Baver
3. Farrell
4. Biondo
5. Wilson
6. Koenig

Overall
1. Kim
2. Baver
3. Farrell
4. Wilson
5. Biondo
6. Koenig
7. Jaworski
8. Derrick
9/10. Wheeler/Fling

The only additional tidbits I can offer right now are that besides Jordan Malone and Mike Kooreman, I heard that Shani Davis was disqualified in the earlier rounds today. Also that Derek Gray won the men's B final.

Posted by noelle at 12:12 AM | Comments (2)

February 24, 2005

Milwaukee Day 1 (Time Trials)

[updated Friday morning]

Yesterday the U.S. Short Track Championships got underway in Milwaukee with 9-lap/1000m and 4-lap/444m time trials, paring the group of 72 elite skaters down to 16 men and 16 women vying for the national title, and more importantly, spots on the U.S. team for next month's World Championships in China as well as on the World Cup team for the Asian World Cups in fall 2005.

Apolo Ohno is of course the overwhelming favorite to take his 7th national title. The women's race is between 2004 runner-up Hyo-jung Kim and Allison Baver.

The Associated Press reports that Rusty Smith -- who has suffered a spate of bad luck the past 2 seasons -- fell in the 444m TT today but is uninjured: "Smith re-skated and finished second to Ohno among the 16 skaters who qualified to compete in the elite men's division. His fall came in a 4-lap time trial which followed an earlier 9-lap event." read full article

---

Don't ask me how scoring works, with all those ties! I thought it was all points based, but point opportunities being scarce, they must use times as a ranking factor for those without points.

See also: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | State skaters make cut

Also, thanks to ADumas we have some unofficial results from today's time trials:

Women's 1000m time trial
1. Hyo-Jung Kim
2. Allison Baver
3. Brigid Farrell
4. Carly Wilson

Men's 1000m tt
1. Apolo Ohno
2. Rusty Smith
3. Jordan Malone

Men's 444m tt
1. Ohno
2. JP Kepka
3. Smith
4. Travis Jayner

Men's overall
1. Ohno
2. Smith
3. Kepka
4. Malone
5. Izykowski
6. Jayner
7. Shani Davis

Complete results via US Speedskating: Points and Time (PDF format)

Posted by noelle at 10:38 PM | Comments (19)

Video clip: Apolo's 500m final in Saguenay

Another collaboration by Sonia, Maggie and Janet -- thank you! Skaters in the race are Apolo Anton Ohno, Mathieu Turcotte, Jiajun Li, Pieter Gysel and Haonan Li.

Download the clip here.

Posted by noelle at 12:40 AM | Comments (8)

February 23, 2005

Good luck, skaters!

The U.S. Short Track National Championships get underway tomorrow in Milwaukee. Just want to wish good luck to Apolo and to all the skaters taking part, whether they're vying for spots on the U.S. team or skating in the age group divisions.

To all the fans that are going, have a great time and cheer everybody on! Be sure to lend some support to resident OZers Cassie, Nick and Chris in their races - I'm sure they will appreciate it!

Articles have been appearing from hometown papers covering local skaters. Hope Cassie doesn't mind me posting it; there's a great article about her among them!

Sheboygan (WI) Press | North frosh on fast track to short track success

When Cassie Dins discovered short track speed skating during the 2002 Winter Olympics, she became enraptured with the hip, new sport. There was just one problem — Dins had never skated before.

Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram | From blacktop to ice
(about Joey Lindsey, who represented the USA at Junior Worlds in January)

Baltimore Sun | Cho, 13, on fast track to short-track success
(about up-and-comer Simon Cho, with comparisons to Apolo)

Posted by noelle at 9:46 AM | Comments (12)

February 22, 2005

Photos from Apolo's 1000m qualifiers

There are loads more (too numerous to post!) in the Budapest Day 3 Gallery.

Posted by noelle at 9:53 PM | Comments (6)

Apolo, doing a trademark stretch before a race

Posted by noelle at 9:50 PM | Comments (7)

Apolo's 1000m preliminary in Budapest

Posted by noelle at 9:43 PM | Comments (0)

Apolo's 1000m quarterfinal

Apolo leads Mathieu Turcotte and Seung-jae Lee (Lee's presence in this and all his races in Budapest has been erased from the records)

Posted by noelle at 9:40 PM | Comments (4)