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November 12, 2005
Press coverage, Bormio day 2
US Speedskating | Ohno Wins Bronze in 500 Meters
"[Apolo] looked very strong and was moving very well in his early races," U.S. Speedskating Short Track Managing Director, Derrick Campbell said. "With the pace of the final starting so slow, it was very difficult to pass. There weren't many places for Apolo to pass in to and no mistakes to capitalize on."The U.S. men’s 5000-meter relay team finished second in their semi final.... After a fall toward the end of the race, the U.S. team was able to recover and hold off the teams from Japan and Australia.
CBC Sports | 2 medals for Canada at short-track World Cup
Congratulations to Alanna Kraus who set a new Canadian record today in the 500m.
AP | Asian Skaters Dominate 500-Meter Races
Loads of photos from Bormio Ghiaccio here. Loads more from Reuters here. Love the one of Suk-woo Song tickling an Italian skater's chin.
Posted by noelle at 4:08 PM | Comments (2)
Apolo wins 500m bronze in Bormio!
Congratulations to Apolo Ohno on reaching the podium for the 2nd time in as many days! He won bronze in the 500m final today in Bormio, finishing third behind Hyun-soo Ahn (gold) and Eric Bedard (silver). Francois-Louis Tremblay was 4th. This was an awesome performance -- Apolo was 4th off the line and held his own in this talented field. In addition, this is his first appearance on the 500m medal stand this season.
Men's 500m medalists: Eric Bedard (silver), Hyun-soo Ahn (gold), Apolo Ohno (bronze)
photo by Armando Trabucchi/Bormio Ghiaccio
Meng Wang is back to her winning ways with a gold-medal performance in the women's 500m final. Evgenia Radova won silver, with Kalyna Roberge capturing bronze. Tiayu Fu was 4th.
Congratulations to Apolo, Eric, Kalyna and all the other medalists!
[Update - Relay semis] The U.S. men easily qualified for the final by finishing 2nd behind Korea in their relay semi. For a good part of the race, Korea and the U.S. seemed to be trading the lead after every exchange, but with about 12 laps to go Korea took the lead and kept it as the Americans eased up to finish a safe 2nd, 11 seconds back.
The U.S. women finished 3rd in their relay semifinal behind China and Italy, so they won't appear in the final. Still, this result puts them in the top 8 overall, where they need to be after next weekend in order to qualify to skate the relay in Torino. So far, so good!
Posted by noelle at 10:39 AM | Comments (6)
World Cup Bormio Day 2 - 500m qualifying
500m spots for U.S. men in jeopardy; Canadians and U.S. women all on track
With the number of skaters competing this weekend, the men had six rounds of the 500m scheduled, and the women had five rounds, setting the stage for another long day of racing in Bormio.
Yikes! Rusty hits the boards in Bormio photo by REUTERS/Max Rossi
Setting aside Apolo's strong performance, things have been mildly disastrous on the men's side today. Going into World Cups 3 and 4, the U.S. men had a real shot at qualifying three men for Torino in the 500m. In order to do so, they would need to have 3 guys ranked in the top 8 at this distance after this weekend and next.
That now seems like a tall (if not impossible) order. Right now we don't even have two guys in the top 32, the requirement to qualify 2 skaters for the 500m in Torino. At #3, Apolo is the only U.S. man ranked in the top 32 right now. The other U.S. men will need to regroup and refocus for The Hague to be sure of even securing that 2nd spot for the U.S.
J.P. Kepka and Rusty Smith, both 500m specialists, unexpectedly bowed out in the early going. Kepka finished 3rd in his 1st-round preliminary. J.P. must have slipped, because he finished 2 seconds off the pace. Then Smith, who moved on to the 2nd-round heats, fell in his race and was eliminated as well after he finished last. No disqualifications were made in either skater's race so it seems like some bad luck.
Apolo skates in the 500m qualifying rounds photo by REUTERS/Max Rossi
Apolo won all his heats outright (despite drawing outside start positions more than once!) and also posted the fastest time of the day, 41.713 in his quarter final. He was briefly rewarded for those efforts with an inside lane draw for his semi, against Ahn, Turcotte and Jiajun Li before reverting to 4th again for his final.
On the women's side, things went more smoothly, though only Hyo-jung Kim made it as far as the semifinals. Allison Baver was eliminated after finishing 3rd in her 2nd-round heat. Caroline Hallisey didn't move on from the quarter finals.
Kim had a great run, but had the unlucky outside starting position in her decisive semi final and was unable to move on to the final.
More importantly at this point, all three U.S. women are ranked in the top 32 for both the 1500 and the 500. Keep up that consistency, ladies!
The Canadians are doing an excellent job meeting their goals for the first of the Olympic qualifying meets. As expected, they excelled in the 500m today, with all 6 of their skaters (3 men and 3 women) ranking in the top 8 for the 500m, once again putting them on track to secure the maximum three spots for Torino.
Posted by noelle at 7:21 AM | Comments (2)
November 11, 2005
Reuters news photos from Bormio day 1
Apolo Anton Ohno of the U.S. reacts on the podium after his victory race ahead South Korea's Ho-Suk Lee and Canada's Charles Hamelin the men's 1,500m final of the Short Track World Cup and Olympic Qualifying Competition in Bormio, northern Italy, November 11,2005. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Apolo Anton Ohno of U.S. concentrates on the starting grid before his race. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Apolo Anton Ohno of the U.S. checks his skate after skating ahead of South Korea's Ho-Suk Lee and Canada's Charles Hamelin the men's 1,500m final Short Track World Cup and Olympic Qualifying Competion in Bormio, northern Italy, November 11,2005. Ohno won the event, ahead of South Korea's Lee and Canada's Hamelin. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Apolo Anton Ohno of the U.S. leads South Korea's Lee Ho-suk (C) and Canada's Charles Hamelin (R) as they compete in the men's 1,500m final of the Short Track World Cup and Olympic Qualifying Competition in Bormio, northern Italy, November 11,2005. Ohno won ahead of Lee and Hamelin. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Posted by noelle at 9:07 PM | Comments (2)
Bridie Farrell in the news
Albany (NY) Times-Union | Skater speeds through surgery
In between all the World Cup coverage, there is a nice article out on Bridie today -- she is definitely one of the most modest and resilient athletes around! Best of luck to Bridie as she trains in Marquette for the next few weeks to preparate for the U.S. trials next month.
Posted by noelle at 8:58 PM | Comments (3)
Press coverage, Bormio day 1
Men's 1500m medalists: Ho-suk Lee, Apolo Anton Ohno, Charles Hamelin
photo by Armando Trabucchi/Bormio Ghiaccio
See the Bormio Ghiaccio web site for additional photos!
AP | Apolo Anton Ohno wins key speedskating race
US Speedskating | Ohno Wins 1500 Meters
The U.S. men’s and ladies’ teams can qualify up to two spots each for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in the 1500 meters if they have two athletes in the top 32 in the same distance after both World Cup 3 (Bormio, Italy: November 11-13) and World Cup 4 (The Hague, Netherlands: Nov. 18-20).The U.S. men’s and ladies’ teams can qualify up to three spots each for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in the 1500 meters if they have three athletes in the top eight after both World Cups’ points are added.
The maximum number of spots the U.S. can have in the 1500 meters is three for men and three for ladies.
Posted by noelle at 3:04 PM | Comments (7)
World Cup Bormio Day 1 - 1500m
Apolo wins 1500m gold!
Great job by Apolo in winning the 1500m today in Bormio against a strong field of 3 Koreans and 2 Canadians! He moved from 5th to take the lead with 8 laps to go, then came from 3rd to win the race in the final lap. It's another sweet victory for Apolo, as he is now 2 for 3 in this distance for the season.
This is a distance Apolo always seems to win in Bormio -- the ice likes him and he likes it! Congratulations also to silver medalist Ho-suk Lee and bronze medalist Charles Hamelin. Mathieu Turcotte finished 4th, Hyun-soo Ahn 5th and Ho-jin Seo was 6th.
Apolo Ohno leads Ho-suk Lee, Charles Hamelin and Mathieu Turcotte in the 1500m final
photo by Armando Trabucci/Bormio Ghiaccio
The Korean women seem back in form, with Sun-yu Jin and Eun-kyung Choi taking 1st and 2nd, respectively, with China's Yang Yang A winning bronze. Three Koreans and three Chinese contested the women's final. Maybe a little surprising to see Meng Wang out of the medals after her dominant performances in the Asian World Cups last month.
So far, the Korean men and women, Canadian men and Chinese women have set themselves up very nicely to gain the maximum number of 1500m spots in Torino.
[Update] Congrats to the U.S. men's and women's relay teams who both advance to tomorrow's relay semifinals. The men won both their relay heat and quarter final races today. The women were 2nd in their heat. Great job!
1500m qualifying rounds
It was a long first day of qualifying in Bormio, with crowded heats of 6 and 7 skaters. Though there aren't as many qualifying rounds in the 1500m since they can have more skaters in each race, it just takes a while to get through all the races due to the length of the 1500m. There is really no easy heat either, when you're trying to maintain or move into a qualifying position in these crowded fields!
All the U.S. skaters made it out of their opening round to the quarter finals. Kimberly Derrick was eliminated in the 2nd round after finishing 5th in her quarter final. J.P. Kepka was eliminated as well when he was disqualified after crossing the line in 2nd in his quarter final.
Hyo-jung Kim, Allison Baver and Rusty Smith all made it to the semis, where they were eliminated, leaving Apolo Ohno as the only American in the 1500m finals against a depressingly strong field of three Koreans and two Canadians. No Canadian women made it into the women's final either, a field equally divided among 3 Korean and 3 Chinese skaters.
Posted by noelle at 10:16 AM | Comments (15)
Athlete of the Month honors for Apolo
The USOC has named Apolo its male athlete of the month for October:
Two-time World Cup overall champion and 2002 Olympic gold medalist Ohno currently ranked second overall in the world, capped off an impressive month with two first-place finishes in both the 1000m and 3000m events at the World Cup II Oct. 7-9 in Seoul, Korea. In addition, Ohno finished fourth in the 5000m relay and claimed the overall crown at the event. Full details
Congratulations, Apolo! However, he's a three-time World Cup overall champion, thank you very much!
Posted by noelle at 6:17 AM | Comments (5)
November 10, 2005
Ciao ragazzi!
[update] Race schedule has been revised - see post below this one for updated times!
Travis Jayner is in Bormio for the first time. He sent these rave reviews that his family has shared with us:
Besides the great view, the great ice and the fact that I am in a small skiing town in the Alps the food is great too. Wow. I really wish I could share that with you all. The Italians just really know how to eat. It is great. Everything is awesome and I mean everything. Hot chocolate as thick as chocolate bars, jams, bread, the list goes on and on but the pasta is great. The food is something that the whole team looks forward to. I wish you could see everyone before meals.
Wouldn't it be great to go to Italy with the metabolism of an athlete? And there isn't anywhere in that town without an amazing view!
Bormio Ghiaccio is already posting photos up on their World Cup site! Click here to see the rest.
Fabio Carta, Apolo Ohno, Nicola Rodigari
photo by Armando Trabucchi
Draw and starting lineups
The opening draw has taken place in Bormio and heat lists are posted now on Cyberscoreboard. Holy cow, there are a lot of skaters there. Everyone's looking for that shot at going to Torino.
There will be 4 rounds of 1500m on day one for both ladies and men, and the guys have to do six rounds of the 500m on Saturday, including 21 heats in the prelims! They are calling round 3 the 'eighth finals.' The men will have to skate 4 rounds of the relay as well, which in the past has meant both quarter and semi finals on Saturday.
For the USA, Hyo-jung Kim, Allison Baver, Kimberly Derrick, Caroline Hallisey and Kristen Biondo will all skate individually though only Kim and Baver skate all 3 distances. For the men it's Apolo Ohno, Rusty Smith and J.P. Kepka skating all three distances.
Posted by noelle at 1:42 PM | Comments (14)
November 9, 2005
Bormio World Cup Race Schedule
World Cup #3 in Bormio, Italy
Here's the schedule for those of you that want to watch the results online. Times have been updated since I originally posted them:
Day 1: 1500m, Relay Prelims
Friday, November 11th, 2005, at 11:20am
Eastern Time: 05:20 AM
Central Time: 04:20 AM
Mountain Time: 03:20 AM
Pacific Time: 02:20 AM
Day 2: 500m, Relay Semifinals
Saturday, November 12th, 2005, at 11:00am
Eastern Time: 05:00 AM
Central Time: 04:00 AM
Mountain Time: 03:00 AM
Pacific Time: 02:00 AM
Day 3: 1000m, Relay Finals, 3000m
Sunday, November 13th, 2005, at 10:30am
Eastern Time: 04:30 AM
Central Time: 03:30 AM
Mountain Time: 02:30 AM
Pacific Time: 01:30 AM
For more information, check out the Bormio World Cup website here.
You can check out the live races on Live Cyberscoreboard at these times, or check out the results on Cyberscoreboard.
If you'd like to chat with other fans during the races, you can join the OZ Chat group - You'll need a Yahoo! ID to register. Hope to see some of you there!
World Cup #3 is the first of two World Cups in Europe that serve as Olympic qualifiers to determine which countries will compete in Torino and how many skaters they'll be able to send per distance. Beyond that, I haven't had time to wrap my mind around the complicated formulas. WorldShortTrack.com has a detailed analysis available.
(thanks to Yano/RustySmith.com for letting me copy info!)
Posted by noelle at 10:29 PM | Comments (5)
November 6, 2005
US Junior Championships Day 2
The Junior Championships concluded today in Midland, Mich. Congratulations to overall champions Ryan Bedford and Carly Wilson, as well as the entire team that will represent the USA at Junior Worlds in Romania next January!
2006 Junior World Team
Adam Riedy (team leader), Ryan Bedford, Jeff Simon, JR Celski, Carly Wilson, Katherine Reutter, Lana Gehring, Trisha Stennes (team coach)
Ryan Bedford successfully defended his junior championship title, coming from 4th overall after the first day to win the overall title with his performances today, including a victory in the 1500m super final. This must feel especially sweet to him -- after winning this event last year Ryan broke his knee and was unable to compete at Junior Worlds.
[Update] Midland speedskater wins final, makes Junior Worlds
Carly Wilson won her first junior title after making her mark last year as the overall silver medalist. She capped off her two victories from day 1 with another in the 1000m A final today.
J.R. Celski finished 2nd overall for the second consecutive year. Best of all, he's a year older, allowing him meet the age eligibility rules for competing at Junior Worlds.
Here are today's results:
500m A finals
Men: 1. Joey Lindsey, 2. Simon, 3. Celski, 4. Bedford
Women: 1. Gehring, 2. Alyson Dudek, 3. Wilson, 4. Alice Kim, 5. Ericka Hawke, 6. Hannah Dyrud
1000m A finals
Men: 1. Austin Yun, 2. Bedford, 3. Lindsey, 4. Trevor Marsicano
Women: 1. Wilson, 2. Reutter, 3. Mary Grace, 4. Hawke, 5. Gehring
1500m super finals
Men: 1. Bedford, 2. Celski, 3. Simon, 4. Marsicano, DQ - Lindsey and Yun
Women: 1. Reutter, 2. Wilson, 3. Grace, 4. Kim, 5. Gehring, 6. Dudek
Overall results (points)
Men: 1. Ryan Bedford (2368), 2. J.R. Celski (2190), 3. Jeff Simon (2112.5), 4. Joey Lindsey (1985.5), 5. Austin Yun (1231.5)
Women: 1. Carly Wilson (3454.5), 2. Katherine Reutter (2568), 3. Lana Gehring (1696.5), 4. Alice Kim (970), 5. Alyson Dudek (959.5)
Full results are available on the Junior Championships web site. Lots of great photos there too!
More info from US Speedskating: Wilson, Bedford Claim Overall Titles
More photos from day 2. Click thumbnails to enlarge and mouse over them for captions.
1500m super final: (L-R) JR Celski, Trevor Marsicano, Jeff Simon, Austin Yun, Joey Lindsey, Ryan Bedford
photos by Phil Bedford
Thanks to Beth Bedford and the Midland Club for arranging coverage of the competition
Posted by noelle at 7:14 PM | Comments (17)
Canada gets a new world record in Bormio
More evidence of the stunning depth of talent on the Canadian bench -- congratulations to Canada's Mathieu Giroux, who set a new 3000m record of 4 minutes 32.193 seconds at the Alta Valtellina Trophy competition today in Bormio. Mathieu shaved half a second off the mark set two years ago by Hyun-soo Ahn at a World Cup in China. Details
With an all-Canadian 3000m, they decided to go for the record and it paid off! Team Canada was embarrassingly dominant in Bormio, winning 19 of the 24 medals available.
Bormio now boasts 2 world records (2 seasons ago Jiajun Li set the existing mark at 1000m there). It's cool to see it happen outside of a World Cup or World Championships.
Posted by noelle at 7:01 PM | Comments (2)