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October 28, 2006
Photos from Jeonju City
Thanks to Lynn for sending in these photos from Korea!
Posted by noelle at 4:52 PM | Comments (8)
Day 2 in Jeonju City - men's 1500m, 1000m#1 and relay results
[newsflash] In addition to Halie Kim, Apolo is also in Jeonju City this weekend (reported by fan-on-the-spot Starangel)! He is training in Korea for a couple of weeks and was spotted at the arena today taping some of the races. Sounds like a promising sign to me! ;)
No surprises here! The Korean men are dominating on their home ice. Nice to see Ho-suk Lee topping the podium in 1000m #1. His main rival Hyun-soo Ahn is competing in 1000m #2 and is well-positioned to equal his double-gold-medal success from last weekend in China.
The Canadian men continue to make it into the finals and have added 1000m silver and bronze to the 7 medals they won last weekend in China.
Men 1500m Final A
1 AHN , Hyun-Soo (KOR) 2:19.737
2 KIM , Hyun-Kon (KOR) 2:20.016
3 SONG , Kyung-Taek (KOR) 2:20.795
4 SUI , Baoku (CHN) 2:20.829
5 ROBILLARD , Steve (CAN) 2:21.089
6 ITO , Junji (JPN) 2:21.413
No Americans in the 1500m A final this time, alas! As expected, Jordan Malone (still ill) didn't skate in the repechage. Jeff Simon was eliminated in the repechage quarter finals. Only Travis Jayner qualified for the 1500m semis, where he was eliminated after finishing 5th. Canadians Marc-Andre Monette and Mathieu Giroux finished 1-2 in the B final.
Men 1000m Final A
1 LEE , Ho-Suk (KOR) 1:30.579
2 HAMELIN , Charles (CAN) 1:30.645
3 JEAN , Olivier (CAN) 1:31.270
4 RODIGARI , Nicola (ITA) 1:31.352
Shani Davis, the only American to qualify for the quarter finals, skated in the B final, where he was disqualified. Last weekend's 1000m gold medalist Francois-Louis Tremblay was the winner of that race. Ryan Bedford was eliminated after being disqualified in the repechage semifinals.
Charles Hamelin: "I was really pleased with my race but I thought I was going to win it. I probably should have changed my strategy against Lee but I got a little apprehensive in the race. It’s something I’m continuing to work on because I’ve geared my preparation towards being able to beat the Koreans." via Speed Skating Canada
Men's relay semifinals
The USA goes to the B final after facing a really tough semi which was won by Canada, with Korea 2nd. Joining these two teams in the A final are Italy and China.
Complete results at Cyberscoreboard Reborn
(AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man) via Yahoo News
Posted by noelle at 10:28 AM | Comments (27)
Day 2 in Jeonju City - ladies' 1500m, 1000m#1 and relay results
The Korean ladies are running into some DQ trouble in the medal finals:
Ladies 1500m Final A
1 KIM , Min-Jung (KOR) 2:23.681
2 LIU , Xiaoying (CHN) 2:23.773
3 CHENG , Xiaolei (CHN) 2:23.920
4 FU , Tianyu (CHN) 2:26.492
5 FONTANA , Arianna (ITA) 3:00.677
DQ JUNG , Eun-Ju (KOR) DQ
Among USA skaters, only Alyson Dudek qualified for the semifinals, where she finished 6th in her heat. Katherine Reutter finished 5th in the repechage A final, Lana Gehring was 3rd in the repechage B final. All 3 Canadian ladies (Kalyna Roberge, Nita Avrith and Raphaele Lemieux) skated in the B final.
Ladies 1000m #1 Final A
1 WANG , Meng (CHN) 1:32.897
2 ZHU , Mile (CHN) 1:33.108
3 JEON , Ji-Soo (KOR) 1:33.300
DQ BYUN , Chun-Sa (KOR) DQ
Powerhouse Sun-yu Jin was eliminated in the semis after her teammate Jeon beat her out for the 2nd qualifying position. Jin is reportedly suffering from a pretty severe cold. Meng Wang is looking to repeat her success from last weekend on her home ice where she won 1000m and 500m gold. Looks like China's skaters are really stepping up their challenge to the Korean ladies! I think World Cup #3 when two 500-meter races are skated will be very interesting since that distance is the one weakness for the Koreans and plays much more to the strengths of China and Canada (who will be on home ice).
American Tina Koenig was the lone American to qualify for the 1000m quarter finals, where she was eliminated. Teammates Cherise Wilkins and Kimberly Derrick finished 1-2 in the repechage B final. Canadians Amanda Overland and Roberge finished 3rd and 4th respectively in the B final. Anouk Leblanc-Boucher was eliminated in the semis.
Women's relay semifinals
The USA will skate in the B final after finishing 3rd in their semi behind China and Germany. Team Canada is out of the running entirely after an uncharacteristic DQ in the same semi. The A final will be Korea, Japan, China and Germany.
Complete results at Cyberscoreboard Reborn
(AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man) via Yahoo News
Posted by noelle at 10:01 AM | Comments (1)
October 27, 2006
Full results from World Cup #2, day 1
Hey, so the results from Korea are well hidden, but they are indeed there on the new Cyberscoreboard. Thank goodness!
In qualifying today, here's how the American ladies fared:
1500m: Alyson Dudek qualified for the quarter finals
Lana Gehring and Katherine Reutter didn't qualify and will skate in the repechage.
500m: Lana, Tina Koenig and Cherise Wilkins will all skate in the repechage.
1000m #1: Tina qualified for the quarter finals; Cherise and Kimberly Derrick to the repechage
1000m #2: Kimberly qualified for the quarterfinals
Katherine and Alyson will skate in the repechage.
Note: Skating in the repechage gives skaters another shot at qualifying for the quarter finals leading to the medal final for a given distance.
Here are the U.S. men's results:
1500M: Travis Jayner qualified for the quarter finals
Jeff Simon will skate the repechage while a still-ailing Jordan Malone will sit out further rounds of the 1500m
500m: Jeff and Anthony Lobello qualified for the quarter finals.
Jordan did not start his 500m heat.
1000m #1: Shani Davis qualified for the quarter finals
Anthony was disqalified in his prelim, and Ryan Bedford will skate the repechage
1000m #2: Travis and Ryan both qualified
Shani was disqualified in his heat
The guys finished 2nd behind Korea in their relay heat to move on to tomorrow's semifinals. It's gonna be a tough one with Korea, Canada and Russia in the field.
It's been another strong day for Team Canada - the ever-devoted Canadian press has a rundown:
All the Canadian women qualified for the quarter finals tomorrow as follows:
500m: Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, Kalyna Roberge, Anne Maltais
1000m: Anouk, Kalyna, Anne, Amanda Overland, Raphaele Lemieux, Nita Avrith
1500m: Kalyna, Anouk, Nita
"It was obvious that the girls learned a lot from last week's racing," said national team coach Martin Gagné. "They knew their opponents better, they were vigilant and were less hesitant to pass an opponent. They're gaining a lot of confidence."
Canadian men's qualifiers:
500m:Olivier Jean, Francois-Louis Tremblay
1000m: Steve Robillard, Charles Hamelin, Marc-Andre Monette
Mathieu Giroux to the repechage
1500m: Giroux, Monette, Robillard
The Canadian men finished a surprising 2nd behind Italy in their relay and will skate in tomorrow's semi.
More: CBC Sports | Canadians advance in short track World Cup
Posted by noelle at 4:39 PM | Comments (17)
Li Yan's new gig
Another chapter in the musical-short-track-coaches saga with this article on former U.S. national team coach Li Yan's return to China to coach that team:
People's Daily Online | New coach puts skaters back on the fast track
"Since I'm Chinese, when my homeland called me up, the only choice for me is to come back," said Li, who was the head coach of the US short track speed skating team at the Turin Games. "I'm confident that I could help these good skaters to win back the glory for China."The skater-cum-coach has been a successful coach overseas taking over the Slovakia national team in 2001 and lifted them to second place in Europe after only half a year. From 2003, she began to train the US national team and was the first person US star skater Apolo Anton Ohno rushed to hug after winning the men's 500m race at the Turin Games.
"For the women's team, we have advantages in the short distance race but still have big gap with the Koreans in long distance, while after the retirement of Li Jiajun, the men's team lacks a leader now. So we need to find new talents," said Li. "At present, we have found someone that has strong potentials but no outstanding ones. The responsibility of the coach is to fully bring out their latent potentialities. Through years' of efforts, they will make great progress."
Posted by noelle at 8:36 AM | Comments (1)
October 26, 2006
Short trackers in the news
Two profiles today, one about U.S. short tracker Erin Bartlett from Ohio and another about skaters (ranging in age from 15 to 62) of the Rochester, NY speed skating club. That club is holding a meet this weekend.
Cleveland Plain-Dealer | She thinks fast
Last March, [Erin] became the U.S. national 14-15 age-bracket champion in a sport that almost is as difficult to master as it is to appreciate. At the U.S. Short Track Speedskating Championships, she won the 1,000, 1,500 and 3,000 meters, and placed second in the 500.As a national age-bracket champ, Bartlett was able to practice with the national team last summer, including Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno and other Olympians. If she continues to excel and improve, there is a chance she could be invited to train and live with the national team year-round in Marquette, Mich.
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | Short-track unites generations
While it is common for a team to produce a national champ ([Coach Marty] Medina says 70 percent of clubs do so), it is unusual to have an Olympic champion (Cathy Turner), a world-team member (Cherise Wilkins, currently competing for the United States in the World Cup in China and Korea), and the number of national champions that Rochester has produced.
If you're in the Rochester area, check out the meet Oct. 28 and 29! They're expecting over 150 skaters from throughout North America. Details are on the article page I linked to or visit the club web site.
Posted by noelle at 6:31 PM | Comments (4)
World Cup #2 race schedule
At this weekend's world cup in Jeonju City, South Korea they'll race the 1000-meters twice and all other distances once.
Here's the preliminary schedule:
Day 1: qualifying races
- racing begins at 10am local time on Friday, Oct. 27
- qualifying races in the 1000m (x2), 500m and 1500m, plus relays
Day 2: repechage and finals, 1500m and 1000m #1 plus relay semis
- repechage races begin at 10AM local time on Saturday, Oct. 28
- finals begin at 5PM local time on Saturday, Oct. 28
Day 3: repechage and finals, 500m and 1000m #2 plus relays
- repechage races begin at 9AM local time on Sunday, Oct. 29
- finals begin at 4PM local time on Sunday, Oct. 29
Since we don't have a live scoreboard, I'm not posting time conversions, but you can find them yourself with this online time zone converter. Remember to set your clocks back one hour this weekend!
Posted by noelle at 4:18 PM | Comments (6)
October 25, 2006
Marquette Mining Journal | USOEC skaters compete in China
Article recaps how the USOEC skaters performed at World Cup #1 in Changchun last weekend.
Posted by noelle at 1:21 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2006
New coaching addition in Colorado Springs
Guy Thibault has recruited a former colleague to join him here in the U.S. Word reached me during this past weekend's World Cup that the U.S. short track team has brought Laurent Daigneault aboard. He has left his position as coach in Montreal with the national team there ahead of a move to Colorado Springs.
I don't know a lot about Daigneault just yet. (Right now I'm not even sure if I've got his name spelled right!) He was a member of Canada's silver medal winning men's relay team at the Albertville Games in 1992 and has been coaching up north for some years now. Eric Bedard's blog confirms that Daigneault will be the assistant coach at the Olympic Training Center.
He'll work there with Ki-hoon Kim, who I believe is expected to return with the U.S. team after this coming weekend's World Cup in Korea.
Welcome, Laurent!!
Posted by noelle at 5:33 PM | Comments (43)
October 22, 2006
Day 3 results from Chang Chun [updates added]
South Korea dominated the gold medals today as World Cup 1 concluded with the 1000m and 1500m #2 as well as the relay finals.
It was a strong weekend for the Canadian men... great to see them medaling in the longer distances, and another World Cup rookie, Mathieu Giroux, made it onto the podium in the 1000m. F-L Tremblay can't have had too severe a crisis of confidence as he brings home 2 individual medals (1 gold, 1 silver) in addition to a relay silver - only Hyun-soo Ahn did better (3 gold).
The Chinese women, in particular Meng Wang with 2 individual golds, had a great weekend, even if Korea's ladies had the edge in the medal count. Very nice to see a rare podium finish by Czech skater Katerina Novotna in the women's 1500m - she's the only skater to break the Asian teams' stranglehold on the podium this weekend.
Complete results are now posted online as is ISU press release.
Women's 1000m final
1. Meng Wang (CHN)
2. Sun-yu Jin (KOR)
3. Chun-sa Byun (KOR)
Men's 1000m final
1. Hyun-soo Ahn (KOR)
2. Francois-Louis Tremblay (CAN)
3. Mathieu Giroux (CAN)
Race had to be stopped and re-started after 3 of the 4 skaters were involved in a crash. Ho-suk Lee was disqualified at that point and Giroux had blade problems, leaving Ahn and Tremblay to battle for the win.
Women's 1500m final #2
1. Min-jung Kim (KOR)
2. Tianyu Fu (CHN)
3. Katerina Novotna (CZE)
Men's 1500m final #2
1. Hyun-kon Kim (KOR)
2. Kyung-taek Song (KOR)
3. Charles Hamelin (CAN)
Women's 3000m relay final
1. Korea
2. China
3. Canada
4. Italy
Team USA's youth showed as they finished a distant 4th in their relay semi on Saturday. They went on to finish 3rd in the relay B final today. The best thing about the new World Cup format is these skaters got more experience this one weekend than they might have gotten all season long under the old format.
Canadian women's coach Martin Gagne notes that his team has been dealing with several injuries and results are therefore better than expected. They're focusing on getting into top form by the time Worlds comes around in March.
Men's 5000m relay final
1. Korea
2. Canada
3. China
4. Japan
Sounds like yet another thrilling duel between Korea and Canada. It came down to the final 2 laps. Tremblay said he tried to hold off Ahn but Ahn was too strong. The USA men finished 2nd in the B final behind Italy.
If these results are representative, I think I'm liking this new format!
Posted by noelle at 9:16 AM | Comments (21)