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January 7, 2006
More photos from day 2 in Romania
For more photos of the Americans and Canadians at Junior Worlds, check out the new photo gallery. Thanks again to Phil Bedford for the photos and Beth Bedford for commentary and captions!
Baby it's cold inside: "The sun finally came out today and it is very cold. The Canadians said it was -14 C in the rink. That is one cold rink to be sitting in." That's about 7 Fahrenheit.
Carly Wilson skates in her 500m quarter final (click the photo for more)
Posted by noelle at 3:39 PM | Comments (0)
Congratulations to J.R. Celski, 500m bronze medalist! [updates added]
500m podium: Dariusz Kulesza POL (silver), Robert Seifert GER (gold), JR Celski USA (bronze)
J.R. Celski took bronze in the men's 500m final at Junior Worlds today in Romania. Judging by times, it's clear J.R. got caught up in a spill of some kind along with the Korean and Chinese skaters. Way to go, J.R.! Things were more balanced today with only one Korean man in the men's final.
Commentary from the Bedfords:
"All the prelims went without much surprise. Then in the heats, some of the top skaters were just plain out-skated. A couple of falls happened, but mostly the skaters that made it to the quarters were meant to be there. Then in the quarters, there were falls, dq's and advancements. Most of the falls happened within the last 3 seconds of the race, so skaters in 4th position advanced. In the semi's, more dq's which led to 5 in the final. In the final, the Korean skater fell about 2 seconds from the start, but it wasn't called back. I'm not sure if there was contact or not. Then 2 laps later, the skater from China that was leading, just fell on his own. A half-lap later, JR fell but got up quick and finished 3rd. It was the strangest set of 500's I have seen. It really turned the leader board into a multi-national site."
Jessica Gregg of Canada had a strong race on the women's side to earn bronze in the 500m. Good show, North America! It's refreshing to see a number of Europeans reaching (and medaling in) these finals as well! Arianna Fontana in particular seems to be developing into a force to be reckoned with on the Italian team.
Arianna Fontana ITA (silver), Eun-ju Jung KOR (gold), Jessica Gregg CAN (bronze)
Additional commentary from the Bedfords:
"Jessica won all of her races leading up to the final. She has a rocket start and is the junior world record holder in the 500. She is such a pretty skater. She was leading and then got passed on the outside with less than 2 laps to go. Go Canada."
"Katherine Reutter fell in her quarter final and Carly Wilson skated really well to get into the semi's. Lana Gehring skated a good prelim, but finished a close 3rd."
US Speedskating | Celski Wins Bronze at Jr. World Championships
Scroll down for new photos from yesterday's action, and click the link below for a summary of how American and Canadian skaters fared today in Romania:
500m final results - Men
1. Robert Seifert GER 43.539
2. Dariusz Kulesza POL 43.655
3. J.R. Celski USA 50.260
4. Jae-han Kim KOR 54.889
5. Tian Sun CHN 54.895
500m final results - Women
1. Eun-ju Jung KOR 45.559
2. Arianna Fontana ITA 45.597
3. Jessica Gregg CAN 45.881
4. Evita Krievane LAT 46.007
The U.S. women faced tough competition in their relay semifinal where they finished last. In the same semi, the Canadian women were 2nd behind Korea and will move on to tomorrow's relay final.
Lana Gehring was eliminated in the opening round of the 500m heats. Katherine Reutter made it to the 2nd round, where she finished 4th in her heat. That left Carly Wilson as the last American woman alive. Carly had a great day. making it all the way to the 500m semis, where she finished 4th.
All three American men made it to the 3rd quarter final round of the 500m. Jeff Simon was advanced to the quarter finals after being taken out by Franche's Maxime Chataignier in their heat. Ryan Bedford was eliminated in his quater final after finishing 4th. Jeff finished 3rd in his semi final, leaving J.R. as the last American standing.
The Canadian men ran into difficulty in the 500m semis, where both Nicholas Bean and Joel Mineau were disqualified. Francois 'Frank' Hamelin didn't move on after finishing 3rd in his quarterfinal.
On the women's side, Andrea Do-Duc was eliminated in the 500m heats, while Valerie Maltais made it to the quarter finals where she finished 3rd in her race.
Posted by noelle at 9:18 AM | Comments (7)
Photos from Jr Worlds, day 1
Jeff Simon in his 1500m quarter final. He was skating well and then fell on his own in the corner
Carly Wilson and Jessica Gregg. Gregg's dad is the doctor here for the Canadian team and is like a 5-time Stanley Cup winner. Her mom is Kathy Vogt, who skated long and short track in the late 70's on several Canadian teams and won some international events. Good genes!
Katherine Reutter in her 1500 quarter final
Ryan Bedford in his 1500m quarter final. He got dq'd for impeding for a pass 8 laps to go
J.R. Celski and Nick Bean. JR skated well, but fell in the semis of the 1500. Nick skated great but got a bad call for impeding and was dq'd. He would have gone into the final.
Lana Gehring finished 3rd in her 1500m heat but was dq'd for impeding
Carly Wilson skates in her 1500 heat
Carly Wilson makes an outside pass the whole last lap to take the win in the relay quarter final by a skate blade. She skated great. She was always about 10-15 meters behind when she got the exchange and then she closed the gap each time (Apolo-ish).
all photos by Phil Bedford
Posted by noelle at 9:07 AM | Comments (1)
January 6, 2006
Junior Worlds, day 1 [updated Saturday]
A report from the Bedfords prior to Friday's skating:
"The rink is looking better. They laid blue carpet on the really bad cement so it really perked up the place. They washed the seats and put flowers in the entry way. It goes off today with relays first and the 1500's and then relays again. There isn't much to do here, but we did take the girls to a monastery outside of town. The kids are nervous, but they are all doing fine and they look good in their matching skins and jackets."
US Speedskating | U.S. Skates Smart at World Jr. Championships
Canadian Press | South Korea dominates on first day of world junior short-track championships
[update]
Relays: Sadly, the U.S. men were disqualified in their relay heat... The guys had a really good heat, but Jeff hit the blade of another skater when J.R. pushed him and he fell. The team caught up with some fast skating and the 'launches' that Ryan gave J.R. With those pushes, J.R. caught up 1/4 lap in the first 1/2 lap. He was going so fast that he two-footed the first corner. The team was fine because they had the fastest time going, but they made a not-very-smart pass and the got dq'd.
The U.S. women won their quarterfinal over Italy, Poland and the Czech Repulic to advance to the semifinals!
1500m finals: The only North American skater to make it to a final was Canadian Joel Mineau, who put in a strong effort and finished 5th. J.R. Celski made it to the 1500m semis, but he appeared to take quite a tumble in that race and didn't qualify.
As expected, the Koreans are dominating the event so far, with all 6 skaters making it to the 1500m finals and sweeping 5 of the 6 medals. (And you know what? None of them are the same guys who finished 1-2-3 last year. Ladie's 2004 World Jr. Champion Sun-Young Park is back to defend her title.)
Women: 1. Jung (KOR) 2:41.069, 2. Choi (KOR) 2:42.416, 3. Kang (CHN) 2:45.448
(some big time gaps there!)
Men: 1. S-H Lee (KOR), 2:25.195 2. J-S Lee (KOR), 2:26.462, Kim (KOR), 2:26.837
1500m qualifying: Ryan Bedford, J.R. Celski and Jeff Simon all made it through their 1st round of 1500m heats to move on to the quarterfinals. On the women's side, Carly Wilson and Katherine Reutter both move on; Lana Gehring was disqualified.
In the quarter finals, Ryan was disqualified, Jeff finished 5th, Carly was 4th in her race and Katherine was 6th, leaving J.R. the lone American to advance to the semis.
Canadians: Team Canada is skating well. Both relay teams and all 6 individual skaters advanced out of their opening heats to the next round of relays and 1500m. Two women, Valerie Maltais and Jessica Gregg, along with Joel Mineau and Nicholas Bean for the men, qualified for the semis.
Posted by noelle at 9:27 AM | Comments (8)
Photos from training in Romania
J.R. Celski, Ryan Bedford, Jeff Simon at practice
The team before getting on the ice. Not sure who's on far left, then there's Lana Gehring, J.R., Carly Wilson waving and Jeff Simon
Here are the Canadian guys at practice. Joel Mineau, Frank Hamelin and Nick Bean
Frank, Ryan and Joel staging a "pivot" picture at the end of practice
The Americans and Canadians waiting to go onto the track during their practice session. They had their practices scheduled the same time.
The Koreans and 1/2 of the other teams here always came to watch the US and Canadian practice. This is the Koreans posing for a photo. They were having a good time.
all photos by Phil Bedford
Posted by noelle at 9:19 AM | Comments (7)
January 5, 2006
Alex Izykowski update!
Guess what - Alex Izy has a web site! Check out 'Izy on Ice' at alexizy.com.
There will be fundraisers this month to help send Alex's mom and dad, Al and Joann Izykowski, to Torino for the Olympics.
Ricker's Green Hut
1301 Columbus Ave.
Bay City, MI
Sunday, January 15th, 3:00-7:00 p.m. $6.50 Donation
Sunday, January 29th, 3:00-7:00 p.m. $6.50 Donation
Alex's web site accepts online donations as well. Visit his site for details.
There is an editorial about Alex today as well in his hometown newspaper:
Bay City Times | Olympic dream comes true faster than a short-track race
Posted by noelle at 8:29 PM | Comments (5)
January 4, 2006
Junior World Championships this weekend
Junior Worlds will take place this week, Jan. 6-8. You can follow the action as usual on Cyberscoreboard and Live Cyberscoreboard.
Representing the U.S. in Romania are Ryan Bedford, J.R. Celski and Jeff Simon for the men, and on the women's side are Carly Wilson, Katherine Reutter and Lana Gehring. They earned their spots on the junior world team through top 3 performances in November at the U.S. Junior Championships.
The Romanian press reports that a record number of competitors -- 155 skaters representing 30 countries -- will take part in the event.
A reporter on the ground sends word that "things are going well, but the rink is dirty and was built in 1970... however, the ice is pretty good. The skaters will go sightseeing and visit some castles Thursday."
Posted by noelle at 8:10 PM | Comments (4)
January 3, 2006
New music video featuring Apolo and other Olympians
To watch the director's cut of the video, visit the 'Behind the Scenes' section of OffthePodium.com.
'The NBC Agency has produced a music video in partnership with the popular Hip-Hop group, Flipsyde, as a unique promotional element in support of NBC's coverage of the upcoming Torino Olympic Winter Games. Featuring the hit single "Someday," the video salutes the athletes striving to make the team that will represent the United States in Torino.' "Someday," from Flipsyde's recently released debut album, "We The People" encourages everyone to strive for their dreams, a belief shared by Flipsyde's band members as well as the Olympic athletes who appear in the video. Shot on location at a Los Angeles-area ice rink owned by Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan, the video showcases the message in Flipsyde's music by illuminating the determination, heartache and triumph experienced by world class athletes in their drive for Olympic gold. In addition to Kwan, Olympic gold medalist, Apolo Anton Ohno, America's best short track speed skater, took to the ice for the production.
Flipsyde will make their national television debut performing "Someday" on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, January 5th 11:35/10:35c on NBC.'
Read more
There are other short trackers shown skating with Apolo in the video, but can't tell who they are.
Posted by noelle at 9:47 AM | Comments (13)
January 2, 2006
Blast from the past
Thanks to an anonymous donor for sending in this great shot (which I believe is a previously unpublished one!).
2000 Men's World Cup Team:
Dan Weinstein, Adam Riedy, Rusty Smith, unkown admirer and Apolo Ohno
Posted by noelle at 5:19 PM | Comments (8)
AP | U.S. Olympic uniforms honor Italian fashion, 1970s skier style
Italy and fashion go together. So do athletes and high-performance gear.
Speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno tells the AP he trains in the base layer. "No. 1 is the clothes have to be comfortable. No. 2 is what we represent and how we convey that. ... The outfits make a statement about us and the Games."
"I'm not a clotheshorse, but I do like to look good," Ohno adds.
(image courtesy Roots via AP Photos -- click for larger view)
Posted by noelle at 5:11 PM | Comments (4)
January 1, 2006
New Today Show video clip
Happy New Year, everyone! I was just creating a new archive for 2006 postings... it blows my mind that we have managed to accumulate 3 full years (2003-5) worth of archives, plus another 10 1/2 months from 2002. Time really has flown!
To start the new year off right, we have Apolo's latest Today show interview and skate session with Natalie Morales, who is a pretty clever lady, as you'll see.
Maggie digitized the recent 'Countdown to Torino' interview and it's now available to download and enjoy -- thanks, Maggie! Download the clip here.
Posted by noelle at 2:22 PM | Comments (22)
Attention New Yorkers: See a short track exhibition in Bryant Park!
Championship Speed Skating Exhibition
Tuesday, January 3, 12:40pm and 7:00pm
The Pond at Bryant Park
Olympic medalists, National and Junior champions, and other national and international competitors demonstrate the power and art of championship short track speed skating. Participants include: Amy Peterson, Bridie Farrell, Abby Hammer, Simon Cho, Ian Baranski, Alex Strauss
Bryant Park is situated behind the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan, between 40th & 42nd Streets and 5th & 6th Avenues, a few blocks from Times Square.
More info: The Pond at Bryant Park website
Click for Event Details
Posted by noelle at 1:21 PM | Comments (4)