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October 1, 2005
World Cup Day 2
Apolo peeks out from behind Li as Tremblay leads during their 500m semi
photo by sina.com
Relay semifinals
Both U.S. teams put in strong performances to qualify for tomorrow's (tonight's) relay finals. The women finished a strong 2nd in their semifinal. They'll face Canada, Korea and China in the final. The U.S. men skated very strong, in 2nd and qualifying position for most of the race behind Canada. In the final two laps Apolo made his trademark late burst of speed to surge past the Canadians, who had been leading most of the race, and give Team USA the win. The men's relay final will also feature the U.S., Canada, Korea and China.
Congratulations to the U.S. ladies who set new American 3000m relay record in their semifinal, as reported by US Speedskating: U.S. Team Breaks a Blade and a Record
500m finals
Unfortunately, no Americans and just one Canadian made it to the finals today. The Chinese are having a great weekend and making the local fans happy! Jiajun Li won 500m gold for the men while Meng Wang and Tianyu Fu claimed gold and silver on the ladies' side, with Evgenia Radanova 3rd.
Francois-Louis Tremblay snuck in at the end for a bronze -- edging Haonan Li by just two one-thousandths. You can see from the photo finish this was a close race! Unfortunately for us, Hyun-soo Ahn's second silver in a row means he gets to take the overall leader's red helmet cover away from Apolo -- for the time being.
China Daily | China sweep 500m golds in short track speedskating World Cup
Contains this annoying line: "With the cover from Fu Tianyu, the 20-year-old Wang Meng claimed the title in women's 500m..."
500m qualifying
Prelims
The day got off to a mixed start for Team USA. Two women (Kim and Baver) and two men (Ohno and Kepka) advanced easily out of the opening prelimaries of the 500m. Kimberly Derrick finished 3rd in her race. Skating in one of the slower heats, she was unable to move on as one of the eight fastest 3rds. Travis Jayner did not finish his prelim heat for unknown reasons. We hope he is ok and will pass along news when we can!
[Update] Travis was unable to skate because he broke off a bit of his blade at the very start of his heat. We hear Travis is pretty disappointed about this devlopment. That's understandable -- a skater wants to skate, after all! But over here we're pretty happy that (paraphrasing Trisha) it's Travis' equipment that broke, and not Travis himself! He does have backup blades and he'll get those ready for the rest of the weekend and Korea.
In two of the more improbable scenarios in the opening round, it was fun to see Brazil's Felipe de Souza move on. He won his heat in a time of 54.355 after an apparently wild race with a disqualification of a German skater and the advancement of another skater. Also, Yang Yang A finished last in her prelim after an apparent fall and did not move on.
Heats
For the women, only Allison Baver moved on to the quarter finals after she was advanced due to interference in her heat. Hyo-jung Kim was eliminated after finishing third in a field of three very capable skaters, only two of whom could continue on. J.P. Kepka and Apolo Ohno both made it through to the quarters easily.
Quarter finals
Baver bowed out, leaving no American women in the hunt. Ohno had a bumpy ride. He was leading but Eric Bedard appeared to have bumped him in his attempt to move up in the last lap, which dropped Apolo to 3rd. Bedard was subsequently DQ'ed and Apolo advanced to the semis where he'll be joined by Kepka, who enjoyed smooth sailing to this point.
Semi finals
End of the road for U.S. medal hopes... and disappointment for OZ stalwarts. Apolo finished 3rd behind Francois-Louis Tremblay and Jiajun Li, and was subsequently disqualified for impeding, though no advancements were made. Also not sure when the last time was that we saw Jiajun beat Apolo!
J.P. also won't move on after a third-place finish in his semifinal. Nice effort by our guys and gals today though... and the quiet Tremblay shows again that he's the class of the talented Canadian squad as he alone makes it through to the final today.
Posted by noelle at 5:36 AM | Comments (17)
September 30, 2005
ESPN kicks off Torino coverage
ESPN has a very nice long article today by Bonnie DeSimone, to open its 'One Road, One Dream' series covering Torino hopefuls:
ESPN | Ohno is now marked man
"The weekend of Oct. 7, Ohno will face one of the most interesting challenges of his career when he competes at a World Cup event in Korea for the first time since the Salt Lake Games. Some fans from that nation have not forgiven him for taking home the gold medal in the 1,500-meter race after Korean skater Kim Dong-Sung, who finished first, was disqualified for blocking. 'I really am looking forward to going back,' he said."
And an interesting passage on team skating:
Another continual test for Ohno is the murky matter of team skating, a tactic outlawed but widely practiced anyway. Short-trackers... are supposed to compete as individuals. When they gang up and box someone in, it's frequently hard to distinguish from what could occur in the normal course of racing.
Some have called for the rule to be abolished because it can't be enforced, but for the time being, Ohno is often the lone American among platoons of Korean, Chinese and Canadian rivals and has to live with it.Full article
photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images/ESPN.com
For a photo gallery fearturing Apolo in 2002, visit their Olympic home page.
Posted by noelle at 7:16 PM | Comments (3)
Apolo strikes gold in Hangzhou - World Cup Day 1
To bring back a catchphrase from 2002 -- OH YEAH OHNO!
Awesome start to the season, OZ fans! Apolo won his first gold of the season in impressive fashion, dominating the 1500m final from start to finish. He started strong, going right to the front and staying there, which was a little easier on this fan's heart after the cliffhanger of his semifinal. Silver goes to archrival Hyun-soo Ahn and bronze to Ye Li. Lone Canadian Charles Hamelin finished 6th. Congratulations, Apolo!!!
More info: Ohno Starts Season Off with Gold Medal
Derrick Campbell: "Apolo skated an aggressive but controlled tactical race, which is what it takes to win in short track. He did an excellent job of counter-attacking all attempts by the Koreans to control the race."
Men's 1500m final - Apolo Ohno, Ye Li, Hyun-soo Ahn
photo courtesy sina.com
Women's 1500m final: It wasn't necessarily the ideal scenario for the average OZ fan. In what's becoming a familiar pattern, all 6 Korean and Chinese women who'd dominated the heats skated in the final. Meng Wang of China won, followed by Koreans Sun-yu Jin and Chun-sa Byun. It's nice to see Byun, reportedly the whistle blower in the Korean abuse scandal, back on the ice.
[Update] - You can read comments by Hamelin and Amanda Overland here.
1500m qualifying
Things got off to a strong start for team USA as 5 out of 6 skaters advanced out of their opening 1500m heats. Kimberly Derrick, skating in her first World Cup, did not move on but she skated a strong race against seasoned competitors, in qualifying position till near the end.
Travis Jayner got tripped up in his quarterfinal. He finished an exciting first but was then disqualified... may have been when he moved from 3rd to 1st in the race's final lap.
Allison Baver and Hyo-jung Kim both bowed out in their respective semi-finals after strong efforts amid very stiff competition. It was JP Kepka's turn next, leaving just Apolo Ohno to represent the USA in the finals. He made things awfully exciting for us in the semi, hanging at the back for most of the race and then making his move from last up to 2nd in the final 2 laps.
[Relays - Update] Another great start to the season for the U.S. relay teams. Both the men and women qualified for the semifinals. The U.S. men won their heat and the U.S. women were 2nd to Korea in theirs. Nice to also see Suk-woo Song, who got banged up pretty bad in Budapest in February, back again. He skated for Korea in the relay.
Fall Fashions
Finally, what would a new season be without new styles? The Canadians as usual are sporting an eye-catching new look -- a trippy new design with... is it polka dots? While the Americans appear to be wearing basic black... er, navy... not sure if this is the new look, or they're still testing skinsuits as we saw from their training camp in Oregon over the summer.
Posted by noelle at 3:51 AM | Comments (16)
September 29, 2005
World Cup 1 preview
As the skaters ranked 1st and 2nd, Apolo Ohno and J.P. Kepka skate all 3 individual distances at the World Cups. Rusty Smith has opted to skate the individual races at World Cup #2 next week in Seoul so Travis Jayner and Alex Izykowski share the distances this weekend with Travis skating the 1500m and 500m and Alex the 1000m.
Similarly, for the ladies, Hyo-jung Kim and Allison Baver skate all individual distances. Kimberly Derrick will join them in Hangzhou while Kristen Biondo and Caroline Hallisey will split the distances in Seoul.
The opening draw has been held in Hangzhou so we now know who's going to be skating in what heat. Here's the lineup for the U.S. skaters in tonight's 1500m:
Ladies 1500m
Baver - heat 3
Derrick - heat 5
Kim - heat 8
Men 1500m
Ohno - heat 1 (geez - he has Jonathan Guilmette and Korean Ho-suk Lee!)
Kepka - heat 4 (has Fabio Carta)
Jayner - heat 12
The men will likely skate first since they have 3 rounds of qualifying vs. 2 for the ladies.
As for the relays, the U.S. women are in heat 1 with Japan, Germany and Korea. The top 2 teams in each heat plus the next two fastest 3rds will advance to the semis. The guys are also in heat one with France, Belgium and Japan. Only the top 2 in each heat advance.
It's definitely an Olympic year! Looks like a pretty fully-subscribed event. Countries like South Africa, India and Mongolia have sent both men's and women's teams to compete.
Want more info? All the heats are listed at Cyberscoreboard.
Posted by noelle at 9:28 AM | Comments (8)
September 28, 2005
World Cup #1 - Race Times and Chat
Ok, short track fans... the first World Cup of the season will be coming to us from the Dragon Sports Center in Hangzhou, China beginning in the wee hours of Thursday night/Friday morning. I believe the schedule is subject to change so I'll post updates as I become aware of them.
Day 1
Friday, Sept. 30 at 1:40AM ET | 12:40AM CT
Thursday, Sept. 29 at 11:40PM MT | 10:40PM PT
Day 2
Saturday, Oct. 1 at 2AM ET | 1AM CT | 12AM MT
Friday, Sept. 30 at 11PM PT
Day 3
Saturday, Oct. 1 at 10:30PM ET | 9:30PM CT | 8:30PM MT | 7:30PM PT
Not at all bad if you're out west!
Also, we've decided to revive the Ohno Zone chat of seasons past for the hardy souls who'd like some company while they're up watching the races on Live Cyberscoreboard.
If you'd like to join the chat, sign up here: OZ Chatters
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ozchatters
Go Apolo! Go USA!
Posted by noelle at 9:28 AM | Comments (10)
September 26, 2005
More scenes from Apolo's 3000m in Saguenay
More photos from this race are in the Saguenay Day 3 gallery, beginning here.
Posted by noelle at 8:59 PM | Comments (4)
September 25, 2005
New article
Salt Lake Tribune | Reviled U.S. skater expects no conflicts in Seoul
Yikes, on the title. Otherwise, this article is similar to the others of the past few days.
Competing [in South Korean] might help ease some of the lingering animosity that nation's rabid short-track fans have for Ohno, or it might fuel a renewed hostility.
For his part, Ohno was gracious in a recent interview, praising the passion of Korean fans and the crackling energy level that packs short-track arenas there and in other parts of Asia and Europe.
And he insisted that he will keep his mind on his skating, not on matters of security or popularity. "Purely my focus is on the competition," he said. "As soon as I start wavering my focus away from what I'm trying to do and what my main goal is going there, then my performance will probably start to decrease.... I'm really excited about this season. Hopefully, it's going to be a really strong one for me."
It will be, Apolo, it will be.
Posted by noelle at 9:57 AM | Comments (6)