« March 26, 2006 - April 1, 2006 | Main | April 9, 2006 - April 15, 2006 »
April 8, 2006
OZers in Minneapolis
We had a great mix of veteran fans and new faces in Minneapolis! It was great to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones.
Here are a few photos from last weekend - get to know some of the faces behind the names you seen posting here!
Hoisting the OZ banner (a gift from Al Izykowski 3 years ago in Bay City
l-r: Bob, Deb, Anne, Nick, Stephannie
photo courtesy Rosh
clockwise from top: Janey, Tiasha, Ashley, Shawna, Kimo, Jan, Junko
photo courtesy Shawna
SusanG and Rosh, with Mathieu Turcotte
photo courtesy Rosh
Melissa and Noelle, with the absolutely amazing bag Melissa made!
Apologies to those who there that I missed. Next time we have to get a group photo for sure!
Posted by noelle at 5:45 PM | Comments (51)
April 6, 2006
Apolo at the Kids' Choice Awards
Time for an Apolo break!
[update 1] Thanks to Marleeta for sending in a link for video of Apolo at KCA! Watch it here.
[update 2] Tons more photos of Apolo at the KCA at SimplyApolo.com!
Thanks to the person who sent me these photos to post... whoever you are! :)
I'm digging the new short 'do!
Posted by noelle at 10:50 PM | Comments (100)
More on Korean infighting...
Thanks to MT for this link:
Chosun Ilbo | Internecine Squabbles Mar Korean Skating Glory
When the athletes came home from the Minneapolis championships on Tuesday, Ahn Ki-won, Ahn Hyun-soo’s father, hit the vice president of the Korea Skating Union during an argument at Incheon International Airport. Ahn said his son, who took the championship in individual combined exercises for the fourth straight time, called him to say the coach of men’s team and other athletes, colluded to block him in the 1,000 m and 3,000 m races.â€
Looks like the sins of team skating are coming home to roost....
What a pity! Hopefully the KSU forgets about national prestige for once and focuses on doing the right thing by their skaters.
Also an article from February:
Yonhap News | Secrets of S. Korean short track skating success
...A new strategy for relay races in which each team member skates two laps while [other teams] skate one-and-a-half laps surprised competitors from other countries. The unexpected order of the relay members also caught their rivals' attention. The team's best skater sometimes participated in the middle of a race while another did the last lap.
That sounds oddly like the Canadians' 'new' strategy!
Posted by noelle at 6:37 PM | Comments (76)
April 5, 2006
Video clip: Men's 1500m final from Worlds
Thanks to Starangel for the video, and to Sonia and Maggie for making this clip available! Download it here.
Posted by noelle at 10:29 PM | Comments (11)
More banquet photos
The beautiful Canadian women's team:
Amanda Overland, Alanna Kraus, Kalyna Roberge, Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, Tania Vicent
photo by Junko
Jordan Malone channels his inner pirate
photo by SusanG
Posted by noelle at 8:45 PM | Comments (21)
Infighting on Team Korea
Donga.com | Skating Team Discord
The discord within the national short track speed skating team has been a distraction for some time. But the disunity the team displayed at the 2006 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Minneapolis was by far the worst yet.
The two national team coaches usually split the job of strategizing for the men’s and women’s relay races. But in Minneapolis, strategy sessions were divided not by gender, but by alma mater. Korea Sport University alumnus Park Se-wu coached the four skaters from Korea Sport University, and Song Jae-geun coached the other six.
Athletes from these two groups dined separately and seldom spoke to each other. The coaches even did not know what room “the other athletes†were staying in.
This disunity affects personal relationships between athletes as well. Ahn Hyun-su and Lee Ho-seok went to the same high school and used to share a dorm room last year. “A lot has changed now. There’s simply no room for a friendly conversation. We feel estranged,†said Lee Ho-seok. Ahn Hyun-su feels the same regret. He posted a message on one of his fellow athletes’ personal webpages: “There is not a single exchange of conversation among us during practice. How did it get this way?â€
Geez, no wonder there's no more team skating...
Posted by noelle at 5:04 PM | Comments (37)
Video clip: Men's relay final from Worlds
Just in case anyone missed it besides me, I want to let everyone know that Jiiji posted a link to video from Korean TV of the thrilling men's relay final from Minneapolis. Click the image below to watch!
Posted by noelle at 1:01 PM | Comments (26)
April 4, 2006
Minneapolis banquet photos
Top 10 women overall (click to enlarge)
Top 10 men overall (click to enlarge)
The top 10 guys and girls received ipods and digital cameras, I believe!
USA men's relay team: Alex Izy, JP Kepka, Jordan Malone, Anthony Lobello, Rusty Smith
After dinner they passed out these little tubes that glow neon colors when you hook them together. Most skaters accessorized themselves with the tubes, but Ahn and crew hooked a bunch of them together and used it to form a conga line and hog-tie a fellow teammate, but eventually devised the best possible use - gigantic jump ropes.
Skaters who'd already been active non-stop for days then spent several hours jumping in the air! There were double ropes and I kept waiting for them to try double dutch but apparently that's unknown in other countries!
Ahn and teammates jump rope
Who's cuter? It's a tossup as Ahn holds his littlest fan
I am pretty sure I can hear a collective 'awwww!' from the female readers of this blog!
Posted by noelle at 9:40 PM | Comments (60)
Worlds banquet (and the end of an era!)
Team USA at the banquet in Minneapolis - weird not to have Apolo in there!
Tina Koenig, Rusty Smith, Allison Baver, Chris Shroer, Jordan Malone, Tricia Stennes, Alex Izykowski, Jimmy Jang, Anthony Lobello, Li Yan, Lezleigh Jaworski, J.P. Kepka, Amy Peterson, Kimberly Derrick, Paul Marchese
The banquet was really nice - it was held in a gorgeous space in McNamara Alumni Center at the Univ. of Minnesota. As usual, they honored the top 10 men and women overall for the competition, as well as the women's and men's relay medalists. More photos to come!
Finishlynx says goodbye
The big news Sunday night was that Finishlynx - the company that runs Cyberscoreboard and Live Cyberscoreboard - announced that they've decided to leave short track. Effective with the end of this season, they'll no longer be providing timing, record-keeping and data management services for the ISU.
This is sad news for all of the fans, friends and family members of skaters who rely on the web sites to keep up with the action at international events. Unless you live in Asia, Cyberscoreboard is the only source for live short track coverage. Finishlynx says they're helping the ISU find a comparable new partner, but right now I have no idea what we're going to do next season or how we'll get results.
Thanks Doug, Hugues, Rich and the rest of the Finishlynx crew for all your service over the years! We'll sure miss you around here...
Posted by noelle at 3:45 PM | Comments (39)
April 3, 2006
Worlds news coverage
CBC | More short track gold for Canada
"We tried a new strategy [in the relay] and it worked like a charm," said Francois-Louis Tremblay. "The strategy was for me to anchor the race well rested. When the final laps came, the Koreans were surprised at my speed and they panicked and cross-tracked all over the place. There's no doubt in my mind if they hadn't cross-tracked, we would have hit the finish line first."
Minneapolis Star Tribune | Short track all work in Korea
AP | South Koreans control short track speedskating worlds
Bay City Times:
Izykowski and Co. travel bizarre bronze medal path
Izykowski beaten by a foot in a game of inches
Whirlwind at Worlds ends on bronze
Posted by noelle at 11:15 PM | Comments (37)
2006 Worlds relay medalists
Chinese, Canadian and Italian women's teams
Chinese, Canadian and American men's teams
Posted by noelle at 7:27 PM | Comments (36)
April 2, 2006
Mens' relay final - gold and bronze for North America!
YEAH! Canada took back the top step of the relay podium with today's final, and the American men showed they've got it going on with their bronze-medal performance -- a very significant accomplishment with not only Apolo Ohno missing, but also Rusty Smith was curiously absent from the final. This has to be a huge confidence booster for the guys! Congratulations to the team of Alex Izykowski, J.P. Kepka, Anthony Lobello and Jordan Malone!
Anthony Lobello, Jordan Malone, J.P. Kepka, Rusty Smith, Alex Izykowski
The Canada-Korea duel was unbelievable to watch. The way they kept stealing the lead back from one another in the closing laps of the race had everyone on their feet and screaming in excitement. The last half lap matchup between Hyun-soo Ahn (or was it Lee? not sure) and Francois-Louis Tremblay was a nail-biter. Tremblay was trying to get around Ahn on the last turn and there was contact between them. They came together to the line and Korea crossed first by a hair.
In addition, Tremblay confirmed in his press conference that the Canadian men busted out their rumored new relay tactics today. He declined to give details of what those tactics were but I don't think it will be any secret to anyone with video of the race. Can't be meant to be a huge secret since coach Guy Thibault kept dropping hints to the press the week before World Teams.
It took the refs ages to sort it all out, but when they made their decision, Korea was disqualified for cross-tracking (the move that prevented Flou's pass at the end) and the North American teams wound up on the podium as a result. I'm not ashamed to say I cheered out loud when the announcemeent came! For me the relay results were the perfect end to the weekend.
I can't forget to mention that Korea went down at the finish line in the women's relay final and Sun-yu Jin got hurt also and was carried off the ice. In the excitement about the good results for Canada and the USA, I want to wish her the best and hope she'll be well soon. Definitely too many bad falls, crashes, injuries this weekend!
The Canadian women finished 2nd in the relay final and they were all smiles collecting their silver medals afterwards. Congratulations to them! Hope they could bring a medal back for the injured Anouk Leblanc-Boucher.
Sun-yu Jin gets checked over after crashing in the final lap of the relay
Posted by noelle at 6:56 PM | Comments (45)
Double bronze for Canada!
Huge cheers and congratulations to Kalyna Roberge and Francois-Louis Tremblay on their third place overall performances in the World Championships this weekend! An awesome result anyway you look at it.
Congratulations to Hyun-soo Ahn for becoming the first skater in history to repeat as World Champion 4 consecutive times!
Men overall: 1. Ahn, 2. Ho-suk Lee, 3. Tremblay
Women overall: 1: Sun-yu Jin, 2. Meng Wang, 3. Roberge
[update] Photos from the overall medalists' ceremonies
Medal ceremony for top 3 men: Ho-suk Lee, Hyun-soo Ahn, Francois-Louis Tremblay
Medal ceremony for the top 3 women overall: Meng Wang, Sun-yu Jin, Kalyna Roberge
Posted by noelle at 5:04 PM | Comments (22)
Anouk Leblanc-Boucher injured
Anouk Leblanc-Boucher is the latest casualty today. She was involved in a crash with Xiaolei Cheng of China during their quarter final race. At first it looked like Cheng hit harder, but Anouk was the one who didn't get up.
photo by Nick Ah Kun
They saw fit to bring a stretcher out for Anouk - whether because her injury was worse or because they got their act together, who knows. Anouk's teammates report that she hurt her ankle pretty bad in the crash and is at the hospital getting x-rays. Get well soon, Anouk!
On the injured skater front, Eric Cheng who had a bad crash yesterday is back skating again today.
Posted by noelle at 3:00 PM | Comments (23)
Worlds day 3 - 1000m prelims & heats
Women's 1000m heats
Everyone is skating great today so far! We had to wait for the final 2 women's heats to see Americans hit the ice, but Allison Baver and Kimberly Derrick both controlled their races well. As with Izy's prelim, Kimberly got passed at the end by Choi of Korea but she had no trouble qualifying to move on to the quarter finals, as did all three Canadian women in their respective heats.
Men's 1000m prelims
Just finished round 1 of the men's 1000m and all our North American guys are through to their next round, as expected.
The announcers said Rusty Smith had a 'perfect race' in his heat, which he did. Alex Izykowski came close to having one too, but for Ho-suk Lee being in his heat. Izy led from the front the whole race and set a fast pace as he did yesterday in his 500m prelim.
Lee insisted on getting by him in the end. When Lee started to make his move, Anouk Leblanc-Boucher's dad sitting behind me start yelling 'Go Izy go!!'
Izy with Lee hot on his heels
By the way, I'm a bit miffed about the helmet covers for the overall leaders. Hyun-soo Ahn and Lee are both wearing the red helmet cover of the overall leader. Francois-Louis Tremblay is tied with them for points and wasn't accorded the honor. Hmph! There may be a reason for it, but without knowing what it is, it doesn't look right!
Posted by noelle at 12:35 PM | Comments (15)