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March 25, 2006
World Team Championships Day 1
Repechage results: We endured a tough, tough night, as neither U.S. team was able to make it out of the repechage round to the finals on Sunday. On the women's side, we were never really able to get things going and finished a distant 4th of 4 teams. The teams from China and Italy advance to the finals.
The failure to advance to the finals was particularly heartbreaking for the guys, who were so, so close right up to the end. After 3 events they were in 2nd and qualifying position, one point ahead of 3rd-place China. It all came down to the relay. Our guys were going great, at or near the front the whole race! Unfortunately, we had a fall and that took us out of the running.
China won the relay, catapulting them to the team points lead in the repechage. The U.S. was 3rd. China and Italy will join Korea and Canada in tomorrow's finals.
[Side note:] Hats off to Kimberly Derrick, who pulled for lap after lap after lap in the women's 3000m. Leading for so long in a 27-lap race is a tough task though and she ultimately faded to 8th after skating her heart out.
The men's 3000m looked like an awesome race! Alex Izykowski skated strong, at or near the front for many laps, while Jordan Malone was close to the back until the last third. As Jordan moved up, it looked like Alex and Jordan would finish 2-3. There was so much passing! In the end Jordan was 2nd and Izy 6th - he got passed only in the final lap though. Congrats to both on a thrilling race!
***
Bracket 1: As expected, Korea dominated the action early on, with their men's and women's teams both winning bracket 1 to earn automatic berths in tomorrow's finals. From bracket 1, both the Chinese and Italian men's and women's teams move on to this evening's repechage round for another attempt at qualifying for Sunday's finals.
Bracket 2: Canada likewise dominated bracket 2, which included the USA and Japan teams. Canada automatically advances to the finals. The American women were a solid 2nd in their bracket, while the USA men tied with Japan for 2rd at 30 points apiece. With only 3 teams, they and Japan were guaranteed a place in the repechage.
[Update:] Canadian coach Guy Thibault has dropped another hint that something special may be in store for tomorrow's men's relay final: "We have a trick up our sleeve for tomorrow's men's relay, a new tactic. We worked it out in training. It will allow us to be in a better position during the race's final laps. Just wait and see!" Ah, I can't wait! Hope they don't need it tomorrow so they can bust it out in Minneapolis instead.
Repechage: USA men and women will join Japan, Italy and China in the skate-off tonight to vie for the final 2 spots in Sunday's finals.
Canada's Anouk LeBlanc-Boucher and United States' Tina Koenig come in one-two in the women's 500-metre second qualifying heat during the 2006 World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championship 2006 in Montreal. (AP PHOTO/Ian Barrett, CP)
Highlights
* Canadian women turned in perfect performances by winning all four 500m races, while the Canadian men were perfect in the 1000m
* Anthony Lobello got a lot of skating in, competing in every individual distance today (500m, 1000m, 3000m)
* Allison Baver didn't compete at all today, for unknown reasons. A couple sources said she appears to be nursing an ankle injury. If that's the case she may be resting up for next weekend - or else just resting up for tonight's repechage
Also: Canada, South Korea to clash at world short championships
Visit Cyberscoreboard for complete results
Posted by noelle at 4:15 PM | Comments (67)
March 24, 2006
Video clip: Men's 500m final from Nationals
Thanks to Fred Gilbert of MidAtlantic Speedskating for making this video available.
It's the men's 500m A final from last Saturday in Wisconsin. Skaters are J.P. Kepka, Joey Lindsey, Ryan Bedford and Jordan Malone.
J.P. shows why he's the man in the 500m, leading wire to wire to win with ease. Watch Jordan in the final lap pull off some moves to come from way behind - you don't see that too often in a 500m! Awesome race. Watch the race here.
Posted by noelle at 1:03 PM | Comments (39)
March 23, 2006
World Team Championships
The World Team Championships take place Saturday and Sunday at the Maurice Richard Arena in Montreal, home base of Canada's short track team.
Teams is a unique format in which skaters vie to earn points for their team rather than skate for individual glory... Distances skated are 500m, 1000m, 3000m and relays. World Short Track has a handy-dandy primer explaining how it all works.
On Saturday, I believe the U.S. men are slated to compete in bracket 2, which includes Canada. The U.S. and Canadian women should skate in bracket 2 as well. Korean teams are in bracket 1.
The Korea-Canada rivalry will be one to watch! The Canadian men won this event last year when it was hosted in Korea and are looking to defend their title... not to mention return to the top of the relay heap after their silver medal finish in Torino.
The Canadians may have the home-ice advantage in more ways than one:
"(Monday), we skated on it and it felt great," said [Francois-Louis] Tremblay. "They had just made it up, so it was perfect. And right after us, the Koreans skated and they all said the ice was bad. That's good for us, because we're used to it."
A French-language article indicates that the Canadians have some tricks up their sleeve for this weekend. Says coach Guy Thibault: "We're holding some tactics in reserve to use against the Koreans. I can't say more than that. It's something we've never attempted before. We might do it on Sunday."
Hmmm! Wish I was gonna be in Montreal.
More info: 2006 World Team Championships web site
Follow the action online!
Results will be posted on Cyberscoreboard after each race. To 'watch' the races in real time, check out Live Cyberscoreboard, which displays an online scoreboard with split times and adjusts the skaters' positions lap by lap as the race proceeds. (Kind of hard to explain, but a demo on the Live CSB site shows how it works!)
Action begins at 10:30am ET Saturday. Bracket 2 (including teams from the U.S. and Canada) begins at 2pm ET. Finals are at 2pm ET Sunday.
Posted by noelle at 10:24 PM | Comments (25)
Apolo featured in a CNN special on sleep
[update] Watching the 'Sleep' special? Post your comments here!
This Sunday CNN will air a 1-hour program on sleep that apparently features Apolo: "'Sleep' also illustrates some unusual violent sleeping problems, interviews a performance artist who creatively uses her dreams, and interviews a dream analyst. Oh, and Olympian short track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno shows up because, well, he's Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno."
'Sleep' -- CNN, Sunday March 26 at 10PM
Posted by noelle at 9:23 PM | Comments (102)
Photos from Torino
Thanks to Starangel from sending in these awesome shots!
1. Scenes from closing ceremonies
Chun-sa Byun, Apolo, unidentified, Sun-yu Jin, Ho-suk Lee
Allison Baver, Chun-sa Byun, Halie Kim, Sun-yu Jin
Ho-suk Lee, Apolo and Shani Davis
2. ... and from the relay final
Hyun-soo and Apolo
U.S. men celebrate their relay bronze
Ahn joins the party!
Posted by noelle at 6:59 PM | Comments (134)
March 22, 2006
Video clip: Torino 500m medal ceremony
Just to let everyone know, you can now watch the men's 500m medal ceremony on YouTube. I know there was a lot of interest in seeing this online and NBC never posted it. This clip is the Korean tv broadcast but it doesn't really matter - it's awesome to watch again! Clicking the image will take you to the clip.
Posted by noelle at 6:08 PM | Comments (43)
Worlds news roundup
Marquette Mining Journal | USOEC’s Jimmy Jang honored by U.S. Speedskating
Congratulations to Jimmy on his coach of the year honors!
CP | Canada looks to avenge Olympic loss to Korea at short-track worlds
Canada and Korea are expected to dominate the world team championships on Saturday and Sunday at the 4,800-seat Maurice Richard Arena, the Canadian squad's training base in Montreal's east end.
Canada and South Korea have been trading relay bragging rights from year to year for the past four or five years. The Koreans had the edge in Turin, now Canada wants it back.
"A lot of countries use this as a preparation for the following week, but we always took it seriously because we've been in the top two in the world for the last eight years or more," said national coach Guy Thibault. "It's important. We're the defending champions on the men's side. On the women's side, we have one of our best teams in the last eight years. I think, seriously, they have a shot at winning this thing."
This article also reports that Rusty Smith won't compete in Montreal, but I am fairly certain they're wrong about that...
St Paul Pioneer Press | Ohno won't be here for world short track meet
Twenty-five medalists from the Olympics in Turin will be here for the three-day competition that begins next Thursday.
Posted by noelle at 9:43 AM | Comments (34)
March 21, 2006
Apolo's KOST interview is up!
The interview Apolo did in-studio with LA radio station KOST on March 16 is now available. Thanks to Denise B for recording it for us, Sonia for adding her secret sauce and to Maggie the clip.
Download the interview here.
Posted by noelle at 5:02 PM | Comments (79)
J.P. Kepka tees [updated ordering info]
Update (Wed. 3/22) from J.P.'s mom:
I have in St. Louis with me the following shirt sizes:
8 - Extra Large
9 - Large
I could mail them priority for $20 which would be cost of shirt plus shipping. If anyone wants one, they can mail a check to and info where to ship shirt to:
Michaela Kepka
7127 Pershing
St. Louis, MO 63130
Please make check payable to JP Kepka.
***
Hey, if you want your own J.P. Kepka t-shirt Caroline wrote in to say:
"There will be some JP shirts at worlds in sizes L and XL. You can go to carolinehallisey.com and use the email link there if you want one. Just shoot a line."
I didn't realize she has a site! Go check it out...
Posted by noelle at 3:13 PM | Comments (9)
news updates
Marquette Mining Journal | USOEC skater on world team
United States Olympic Education Center short track speedskater Tina Koenig finished first overall and qualified for the world team at the 2006 U.S. National Short Track Championships last week in Verona, Wis.“I have had my share of tough breaks and bad luck, so I am really excited that I achieved my goal of making the world team,†Koenig said.
Boston Globe | Not an Apolo mission
Count Apolo Anton Ohno out of the world team and individual short-track speedskating championships in Montreal and Minneapolis over the next two weekends. The Olympic champ has called it a season, as has top US woman Hyo-Jung Kim, who has been bothered by an Achilles' tendon injury all winter. The rest of the men's team (Rusty Smith, J.P. Kepka, Anthony Lobello, Alex Izykowski) will compete, as will Allison Baver and Kimberly Derrick from the women's squad. They'll be joined by five-time Olympian Amy Peterson, who missed getting to Turin but will be making her farewell skate in her home state at 34. The Koreans, who won 10 medals at the Games, are bringing their varsity, led by triple gold medalists Ahn Hyun-Soo and Jin Sun-Yu . . . Ohno and long-track gold medalist Joey Cheek are the newest faces on the special-edition Wheaties boxes on shelves this month.
Still no AAO Wheaties box in these parts. Hmph!
Posted by noelle at 9:33 AM | Comments (48)
March 20, 2006
Nationals photos!
Click the photo below for more photos from nationals:
Travis Jayner and Jordan Malone pose with J.P. Kepka - in spirit!
Thanks to Peggy Aitken and Don Rulis for the photos!
Posted by noelle at 10:02 PM | Comments (37)
March 19, 2006
U.S. National Short Track Championships - day 3 & 4 results
[update]: Detailed results are available from USS. I want to add congrats to Simon Cho who swept all 4 distances to win the juvenile age group, way to go man! Caroline Hallisey competed in the Intermediate age group rather than seniors, where she also swept all the distances. Way to go!
Again, congratulations to all the skaters who took part in nationals especially OZers Cho, Cassie Dins, who won her first nationals medal (relay bronze) and Nick Ah Kun, who promises to write up his experiences for us.
Top 3 men:
Travis Jayner (bronze), Jordan Malone (gold), J.P. Kepka (silver)
J.P. was unavailable for the photo but love Travis rockin' the J.P. tee!
Top 3 women:
Lezleigh Jaworski (bronze), Tina Koenig (gold), Amy Peterson (silver)
Congratulations to all the skaters on their outstanding performances!
World team: Jordan Malone and J.P. Kepka will join pre-qualified teammates Rusty Smith, Alex Izykowski and Anthony Lobello on the World team. On the ladies side, Tina Koenig, Amy Peterson and Lezleigh Jaworski will skate at Worlds alongside pre-qualified teammates Allison Baver and Kimberly Derrick. Halie Kim was also pre-qualified but declined her spot on the World team due to her Achilles injury.
Rusty, Alex and Anthony will skate individually for men and Allison and Kimberly will skate individually for women at Worlds in Minneapolis. I'm told Jordan will also skate at World Teams in Montreal.
Special mention: Travis Jayner skated awesome for 3rd place overall, and that final spot on the World team came down to the last race. In an ideal world (which apparently doesn't exist in short track), he'd be on that World team too -- but his day will come! And let's hear it for 34 year old 5-time Olympian Amy Peterson coming out of retirement to make another World team!
Day 3 (Saturday):
Women's 500m podium: Sophia Milan (bronze), Cherise Wilkins (gold), Lezleigh Jaworski (silver)
Men's 500m podium: Jeff Simon (bronze), J.P. Kepka (gold), Jordan Malone (silver)
Thanks to Alex Strauss for overall results and Peggy Aitken for sending podium photos!
Posted by noelle at 9:59 PM | Comments (48)