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March 10, 2007
Overall classification after 2 events
Men
1. OHNO , Apolo Anton USA 34 points
1. HAMELIN, Charles CAN 34 points
3. AHN , Hyun-Soo KOR 26 points
4. TREMBLAY, Francois-Louis CAN 21 points
4. RODIGARI , Nicola ITA 21 points
6. MALONE , Jordan USA 13 points
7. SONG, Kyung-taek KOR 8 points
Charles Hamelin poses with his compatriot Francois-Louis Tremblay and Ahn Hyun-Soo of South Korea after the men's 500 metres short track speed skating final at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2007 in Milan March 10, 2007. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo(ITALY)
Women
1. JUNG , Eun-Ju KOR 47 points
2. ROBERGE, Kalyna CAN 34 points
3. JIN , Sun-Yu KOR 21 points
3. FONTANA, Arianna ITA 21 points
5. BYUN , Chun-Sa KOR 13 points
6. ZHOU , Yang CHN 8 points
7. BAVER , Allison USA 5 points
8. FU , Tian Yu CHN 3 points
Kalyna Roberge poses with Arianna Fontana and Jung Eu-Ju after the women's 500 metres short track speed skating final at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2007 in Milan March 10, 2007. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo(ITALY)
Posted by noelle at 4:39 PM | Comments (61)
Live-blogging Worlds Day 2 - men's relays
It's AAO, Lobello, Malone and Bedford against Canada, China and AUS. Why do we have to be in the same race as AUS? No one can tell our skinsuits apart in this fuzzy video... Apolo unleashes his famous pre-race yawn, a sign that all is well.
Canada is sitting 3rd and we're last behind them. It's all calm for now but I can't tell who's on track without listening to the commentators. They're talking about J.P. Kepka - indeed, I was wondering who would start for us without him here.
China has a big gap on us, followed by CAN. They're picking up the pace now, about midway through. Canada is now 2nd, China still leading. They're widening the gap a bit now. Get up there, USA! Canada takes over the lead on an exchange to Hamelin. I can understand Korean now. Canada is way ahead of China, who's just ahead of us. Not sure where AUS is. And now we move into 2nd on an exchange to Malone! If my Korean is to be believed.
From Matthias in Milan: "crazy pass from apolo in the last corner of the relay 1/4 round behind the chinese skater, skating like crazy picking up and putting in the turbo with 3m to go before last corner made an inside turbopass and went off for a good lead to the finish line. It feels like apolo was never away from the circuit... crazy!"
And Ohno brings the USA home in qualifying position - easy! That was a nice, calm race for such a tough heat. Nice job, boys - see you in the final tomorrow!
Posted by noelle at 3:30 PM | Comments (11)
Live-blogging Worlds day 2 - 500m quarter finals, semis and finals
Finals
Men: Jordan Malone really has his work cut out for him here. His fall means his time was slow in the semi and he starts from lane 5... indeed, not a strong start and Jordan is behind from the get-go. Charles Hamelin in lane 1 and Flou Tremblay in lane 2 go straight to the front and ain't no one gonna catch 'em. So Hamelin overcomes any bad juju left over from his day 1 DQ and gets what he came here for... and spoils Flou's efforts to threepeat, but this is Charles' year - in all likelihood, his era. Way to go!
1. Hamelin (CAN)
2. Tremblay (CAN)
3. Ahn (KOR)
4. Song (KOR)
5. Malone (USA)
Frank Hamelin, I hope you got to see this!
And we have 2 North Americans tied for the overall lead heading into day 3. When has that ever happened?!
Women: This is your race to lose, Kalyna Roberge! False start on Fu... at first I thought they wouldn't call it back. A clean (enough) start and Kalyna is off well and powering her way to an easy 500m world title. Fu takes out Jung and it's all Kalyna, though the Italian firecracker Arianna Fontana stays with her for silver. DQ Fu, bronze for Jung. Way to go, Canada!!!
1. Roberge (CAN)
2. Fontana (ITA)
3. Jung (KOR)
DQ Fu (CHN)
Kalyna appeared to be very moved during the medal ceremony!
Semifinals
Semi #2: Damn, I was really hoping the starter would see fit to recall Jordan's race but I guess that crash happened a tad too late. I don't know if Jordan booted out again or what, but he fell just past the apex and took Ye Li with him. Wait, Olivier Jean is dq'ed! Oh yes, clearly, Jean barged right into Malone, which is like a Hummer taking out a Mini. Jordan is therefore 2nd and headed to his first inidividual final at the World Championships- YES! YES! Could we have an all-North American podium? Pretty please. How sweet would that be...
Semi #1: Oh no! Seems that Apolo is out after another semi that should have been a final - Song, Tremblay, Hamelin. It was a bad race for 2/3 of North America. Flou has showed all day long why he's the 2-time world champ at this distance by skating himself into lane 1 starting position heat after heat, race after race, and capitalizing on it each time. {update} CSB is updated and shows Apolo has been disqualified and Hamelin advanced to the final. It seems the call was made on a pass where Apolo inserted himself into a very tight spot between Hamelin and Tremblay, sending Hamelin wide... How quickly fortunes change, dear reader! The gods of short track are ever fickle.
Still catching up - wow, great to see all the Canadian ladies are still in it. I expect to see more than one maple leaf gracing the podium today.
Semi #2: Holy short track. Eun-ju Jung, yesterday's 1500m gold medalist, got squeezed badly at the start by Anne Maltais and Marta Capurso, forcing her far to the back of the pack - seemingly too far behind to make th eground up in a 4 1/2 lap race. She outclassed even Ahn with her ~2-lap power move around the outside to win the race... that is an incredible display of strength. Maltais was dq'ed for impeding - she knd of got squeezed too - the replay showed her shoving Jung behind her though I think she was trying stay upright.
Quarter finals below the jump
Quarterfinals
Wow, just got back home in time to catch the last 2 men's heats. I guess they started earlier than advertised...
Damn. You just can't deny the brilliance of Ahn Hyun-soo against the likes of Olivier Jean and Satoru Terao but with a really terrible start (a distant 3rd) - Ahn not only recovered but powered around Terao and Jean on the outside with both hands on his back! to win the race seemingly effortlessly. Man, that just doesn't happen. He looked like he had all the time in the world!
Nor can you deny the brilliance that is Apolo Ohno, in a heat with Kyung-taek Song and Yuri Confortola. The pink-helmeted one didn't get the greatest start and took a couple laps to get going. Strictly speaking, he didn't have to challenge for the lead but he knew Confortola was on his butt... Apolo set up his pass really well and lunged by Song on the inside. AAO stuck his blade across the line for good measure, but he didn't need to, it really wasn't even close!
So what happened with the girls?? I need to catch up.
Posted by noelle at 1:54 PM | Comments (49)
Worlds day 2 - 500m prelims & heats
Heats
We're seeing some attrition in this round, unfortunately. On the women's side they're picking top 2 plus 4 fastest thirds. Allison Baver is out, having been disqualified after finishing 3rd in her heat. Kimberly Derrick is eliminated and so is Canada's Amanda Overland. CSB is updated and Amanda qualified for the quarter finals as one of the 4 fastest 3rd place finishers. The U.S. ladies are now done till tomorrow, I'm afraid.
The only surprise I see is that Evgenia Radanova is out uncharacteristically early after (perhaps) running into trouble with Dutch skater Annita van Doorn. No DQs, though. This will be very helpful to Kalyna Roberge, who now becomes the automatic favorite to win 500m gold (and the world title at that distance) - if she wasn't already.
Apolo Ohno found himself skating in the only 5-man heat this round, which he won handily. At least it was the first heat this time, rather than the 14th (and last) in round 1. Wim de Deyne (skating in same heat as Jordan Malone) finishes 4th - how is that possible? I'm not sure there is an unluckier skater on the circuit than the lanky Belgian.
Heat 7 takes a bizarre turn, as Flou Tremblay leads wire to wire, while the rest of the pack - a Chinese, a Japanese and a Belgian - all end up disqualified. Dying to know what happened there, but when you're skating a 500m against FLT you're gonna be eliminated one way or another.
And all American and Canadian men are through to the next round! With apologies to Simon Cowell...
Preliminaries
I'm way too sleepy to attempt live-blogging this morning - but it's all good news after the women's and men's preliminaries in that every American and Canadian skater has made it safely through round 1.
Posted by noelle at 6:24 AM | Comments (44)
March 9, 2007
Overall classification after 1 event
Stay right where you are, Apolo!
Apolo is 1500m world champion!
Men
1. OHNO , Apolo Anton USA
34 points
2. RODIGARI , Nicola ITA 21 points
3. AHN , Hyun-Soo KOR 13 points
4. MALONE , Jordan USA 8 points
Women
1. JUNG , Eun-Ju KOR 34 points
2. JIN , Sun-Yu KOR 21 points
3. BYUN , Chun-Sa KOR 13 points
4. ZHOU , Yang CHN 8 points
5. BAVER , Allison USA 5 points
6. FU , Tian Yu CHN 3 points
Apolo Anton Ohno of U.S. reacts at the end of the men's 1500 metres short track speedskating final at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2007 in Milan March 9, 2007. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo (ITALY)
[update]Thanks to USA Today's Beau Dure for plugging OZ on their sports blog:
Short-track speedskating: Apolo Anton Ohno and Allison Baver are back in action for Worlds. Results again at ISU, but check OhnoZone for the commentary. It's already interesting.
Also: CP | Canadian Olivier Jean disqualified in 1,500-metre final at short track worlds
Jean, who crossed the finish line third, was disqualified for an incident at the halfway point with Ahn. Song meanwhile crossed the finish line first, but was also disqualified for blocking a passing attempt by Ohno near the end of the race."I was very surprised find out after the race I had been disqualified," said Jean. "I made an error by hitting the blocks, but I didn't cause Ahn's fall in a passing attempt. I just lost my balance. It's a hard decision to understand, but I have to live with it. It's too bad because up to that point I was racing better and better in each round and gaining confidence."
Posted by noelle at 3:13 PM | Comments (54)
Live-blogging Worlds day 1 - 1500m semis and finals
Finals
silver medallist Nicola Rodigari of Italy, winner Apolo Anton Ohno of the US, and bronze medallist Hyun-Soo Ahn of Korea, bite their medals on the podium (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Men's 1500m final
1. Ohno (USA)
2. Rodigari (ITA)
3. Ahn (KOR)
So far this world championships is way up for grabs.
Shots of Jordan applauding as his fellow competitors are announced... He starts 4th on the line, AAO 6th and outside. Race gets off to a slow start. Ahn makes his move from the back to lead. Then we lose the picture! WTF? Not the time to go back to the announcers in studio... and must we cut to a shot of Fred Benjamin ringing the bell in the thrilling final lap?! I mean, no offense, but I'd rather see the action on the ice.
Jordan's in the lead when we get it back and now Ahn? Song? passes. Where is Ohno? There he is, 3rd behind Malone. The picture is so fuzzy I can't tell for sure. Then, disaster - Malone wipes out and Song is the winner with Apolo edging Rodigari at the line for silver. Can we please see that race again? They don't show us Jordan's crash again. What the heck happened to Ahn, for that matter? He was 5th. Jordan in heat box after the race - he looks ok - tired and disappointed. Nice return Apolo! Back on the podium on first try.
WOW! Haven't seen this kind of insane race in a while. Song is disqualified - Ohno wins gold! Naturally every time they replay the moment that led to Song's dq, I'm not watching. Looks like Jimmy Jang (hi Jimmy!) had a word with the refs. Was it a cross-track? The Korean TV announcers are dismayed. Rodigari is upgraded to silver and Korean TV seemed to report that Jean is now on the podium in bronze and Ahn is dq'ed but it's actually the other way around.
[update] Peggy says Jordan booted out, which is something I think you have to be a skater to really know what it means, and indeed, the replay appears that he fell on his own. It's not at all clear what his official result is. Jordan did in fact receive 4th place points, though the coaches were arguing that he should have received bronze over Ahn. Evidently Ahn still had a lap to go when Jordan finished skating but Cyberscoreboard and/or lap timers screwed up and they didn't get a time for Jordan. How bad does THAT suck?!
silver medallist Sun-Yu Jin, gold medallist Eun-Ju Jung and bronze medallist Chun-Sa Byun, listen to their national anthem on the podium of the women's 1500 meter race. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ladies 1500m final
1. Jung (KOR)
2. Jin (KOR)
3. Byun (KOR)
Allison was the lone American in the race and the only skater without a teammate. Early on she confronted a wall of blue as all 3 Koreans went to the front. She worked very hard to keep herself in the mix but ran into trouble after some contact with, I believe, a Chinese skater and faded to 5th. Nice job representing North America!
Semis below the jump
Men's semis
Flou settled into an early lead while Apolo was content to mark Ahn at the back of the pack early on. Eventually both skaters moved up and Flou faded back. Ahn went on to win with Apolo 2nd; AAO stood up a bit early for my tastes at the finish line - Flou could have nipped him.
Jordan Malone unleashed a badass move with about 4 laps to go to move from the back of the pack to the front, opening up a gigantic lead on the pack, which Kyung-taek Song was having none of. Song caught and passed Jordan and these 2 finished 1-2.
Man, Olivier Jean dominated his race. Shows you how inaccurate the live results really are because they showed him in 2nd when in fact he was leading for what seemed like the entire race. Anthony Lobello was stuck in the pack and finished 5th.
Women's semis
Allison Baver - looked like she had a very strong skate; finished 2nd behind Chun-sa Byun to qualify for the final. Welcome back, Ms. Baver!
Kimberly Derrick - Skated from the back of the pack in what may as well have been a final... unfortunately, Kimberly wasn't able to move up. Kalyna Roberge was in qualifying position till she was passed in the final 2 laps.
Amanda Overland made a nice move to the front for several laps before being passed by the Chinese and Italian skaters. She made a move back into 2nd very briefly but was too far to the outside when Jin made her move and others were also passing and she finished 5th. Great to see her back after absence due to injury!
Posted by noelle at 1:34 PM | Comments (60)
Worlds day 1 - 1500m heats
Jordan Malone of U.S. and Li Ye of China compete during the men's 1500 metres short track speed skating heat at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2007 in Milan March 9, 2007. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo (ITALY)
Ouch. Charles Hamelin's bid to bring home the world title was dealt a big blow when he was disqualified in his 1500m heat earlier today. That's the big news of the day so far... but the weekend is young and anything can happen.
All the Americans qualified to move on in the 1500m. It looks like the men skated both heats and quarter finals in the early part of the day; women, heats only. The actual schedule of events tends to vary from the published one... Jordan won his 1500m heat and quarter final; Apolo won his heat, finished 2nd to Ahn in his quarter. Anthony Lobello was also 2nd in his heat and quarter so all 3 guys will skate in the semi finals.
Allison Baver and Kimberly Derrick both qualified to move onto the 1500m semis with 2nd-place finishes in their heats.
In addition to Hamelin, Canadian Anne Maltais was eliminated in her 1500m heat, and will not move on. All remaining Canadians qualified.
[update from Junko in Milan]
In men's quarter-finals, they advanced 3 top skaters. In heats, Apolo appeared to slip a little after the start line because he skated out to the right but I guess he needed a little space in front of him. Jordan did very good in both heats and quarter-finals. Allison skated well. Her dad's cheering was really encouraging and reassuring to all of us. Canadians, Olivier and Tremblay also skated very well and both are qualified for the semi this evening. As to Canadian women, Roberge went through and so did Amanda, I think. Charles was disqualified at the heats... it looked he slipped and fell on his own but later I was told that they announced he was disqualified for impeding.
Apolo and Ahn were in the same quarter-finals. Both stayed in the back of the pack until almost 3 laps to go. I had to raise my voice, "Speed up, now! Go, Apolo!" Tremblay did the same thing, staying in the back of the pack. I had to yell again. Can't help it. I am not racing, so, as having different state of mind, I become insecure for them. I don't have a strategy, just have a fan psychology.
The weather of Milano is pleasantly warm, maybe around 45-60 degrees F during the day time. Good for shopping. Ttyl...
Posted by noelle at 9:09 AM | Comments (83)
March 8, 2007
2007 World Championships from Milan - times & events
Official World Championship web site
Cyberscoreboard for detailed results and live results
Friday, March 9 - 1500m and women's relay semifinals
- 1500m heats begin at 11AM local time (North America: 5AM ET/2AM PT)
- 1500m quarter finals begin at 7:30PM local time (North America: 1:30PM ET/10:30AM PT)
Saturday, March 10 - 500m and men's relay semifinals
- 500m preliminaries begin at 11AM local time (North America: 5AM ET/2AM PT)
- 500m quarter finals begin at 7:30PM local time (North America: 1:30PM ET/10:30AM PT)
Sunday, March 11* - 1000m, 3000m superfinals and relay finals
- 1000m preliminaries begin at 11:40AM local time (North America: 6:40 AM ET/3:40 AM PT)
- 1000m quarter finals begin at 3PM local time (North America: 10AM ET/7AM PT)
* times adjusted for switch to daylight savings time at 2AM Sunday March 11
Cyberscoreboard has posted the draw so you can see who's skating in which opening heats. Also, the U.S. did in fact qualify 3 men to skate individually in Milan - not really sure how, but it's great news. Anthony Lobello joins Apolo Ohno and Jordan Malone in representing the USA.
Posted by noelle at 6:39 PM | Comments (29)
New Cleveland photos!
To whet your appetite for Worlds beginning tomorrow, here are a few more scenes from Nationals (thanks to the Jayners for sharing these!):
mens 1000m podium: Anthony Lobello, Apolo Ohno, Travis Jayner
mens 500m podium: Travis Jayner, Apolo Ohno, Jordan Malone
Travis displays the awards for World Team members: flowers and glass trophy with penguin etching
womens 500m podium (corrected): Alyson Dudek, Allison Baver, Halie Kim
photos by Jack Jayner
Posted by noelle at 6:35 PM | Comments (8)
March 7, 2007
Charles Hamelin sets sights on World Championship title
La Presse | Charles Hamelin voit grand
Galvanized by excellent results on the World Cup circuit this season, Charles Hamelin envisions nothing less than first place in the overall classification at this weekend's World Championships in Milan. 'I'm versatile. I've demonstrated that I can win medals at every distance. So my objective is to return home as World Champion.'The return to competition of Apolo Anton Ohno could mess up his plans but Hamelin isn't losing sleep over it. 'I don't know what he's going to do, but I'm not afraid of him. It's he who should be afraid of us. There must be a reason he didn't skate any World Cups this season.'
On the women's side, [Canadian] hopes rest on Kalyna Roberge, who finished 3rd overall at last year's World Championships in Minneapolis. Roberge will be especially wary of the Korean skaters, who don't mind making illegal passes, as they did at the last World Cup in Budapest.
Posted by noelle at 10:10 AM | Comments (124)
Short track team will move from Colorado Springs to Kearns, Utah
Naughty Chad Hedrick spilled the beans:
Salt Lake Tribune | U.S. short-track speedskating moving operations to Utah
Speedskater Chad Hedrick accidentally spoiled the surprise Tuesday, letting slip that the U.S. short-track speedskating team soon will be moving its base of operations to the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns. Executive director Bob Crowley said [US Speedskating] wanted to wait [to announce the move] until after the team finished its season this weekend at the World Championships at Milan, Italy.
It makes a certain amount of sense, and rumors had it that the USOC was pressuring USS to make this happen, but it's not nearly as a good a deal for the athletes, who will have to fend for themselves a lot more than they currently do in Colorado Springs.
Posted by noelle at 9:19 AM | Comments (96)
March 5, 2007
Video clip: Men's 1000m final in Cleveland
[update] Tony uploaded a new version of the race. I've replaced the old one with the new one below.
Nailbiter of a race, with video courtesy of Tony!
Posted by noelle at 8:40 PM | Comments (94)
Tallahassee Democrat | Lobello on way to world championships
Posted by noelle at 8:23 PM | Comments (9)
Meng Wang banned from competition
Fallout from the Asian Winter Games controversy has become apparent - Meng Wang will be banned from competing at this month's Worlds and World Team Championships in retaliation for her public criticism of Coach Li at January's Asian Winter Games. Wang would have been a lock to repeat as 500m world champion and would be a strong threat for the women's overall title (she has twice been 2nd overall).
China Daily | Olympic champion banned for criticism
Olympic champion speed skater Wang Meng has been banned from competing at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships and World Team Championships later this month. The punishment came in response to Wang's attack on new team coach Li Yan during the Asian Winter Games in January."Wang Meng's improper comments about the team's head coach during the Asian Games had a negative effect on the whole team. The center has asked her to reflect deeply on the mistakes and make a written apology," said a statement from the Center.
"I have to pay for my unwise behavior during the Asian Games. It was irresponsible to make such remarks. My mistakes tarnished the image of the team. I'm so sorry. I accept the punishment imposed on me," said Wang in her apology. "I will learn lessons from the mistake and work even harder in the future."
"I don't think it is a harsh punishment," said Tong Lixin, director of the Center's Short Track Speed Skating Department.
Also: Time for Wang Meng's comeback is May
Eurosport vies for most groan-worthy headline ever! Wang ban, no thank you, mam
Posted by noelle at 1:20 PM | Comments (167)