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November 24, 2007
Men's relay semifinal
Once again, many thanks to Beth and Phil Bedford for keeping us informed about results from Heerenveen and for sharing their fantastic photos!
On Friday, the U.S. men finished 2nd in their heat to move on to today's semi - which was quite a race! Holy sh_t is about all you can say when you have a semi with Korea, China, Canada and USA. That is usually the A final!
The semi started out nice and slow, then built with speed. Korea jumped out to a large lead, followed by China, who had a gap on the U.S. and Canada, battling for 3rd place. All changed in the last 10 laps, when the gaps were closed and there were 3 teams trying to get that second spot for the final. Canada bumped China and Jordan Malone made a sweet pass on the inside and captured 2nd place for the U.S. behind Korea. Canada was disqualified. Got to also give it to Jeff Simon, who hauled butt in his exchanges, the pass Ryan Bedford made on Charles Hamelin down the backstretch and to Travis Jayner, who made a half-dozen excellent passes with the push. It was a real team effort. Let's hope the A final is this good!
Posted by noelle at 4:35 PM | Comments (8)
Day 2 in Heerenveen - 500m finals
500m A final - men
1. SUNG Si-Bak KOR 42.394
2. HAMELIN Charles CAN 42.458
3. TERAO Satoru JPN 42.575
4. KWAK Yoon-Gy KOR 42.631
5. DE DEYNE Wim BEL 42.935
This was a quick race with a great last 20 meters. Terao of Japan pulled out a medal in the last 40 meters.
500m A final - ladies
1. WANG Meng CHN 45.046
2. PARK Seung-Hi KOR 45.117
3. FU Tian Yu CHN 45.189
4. ZHAO Nannan CHN 45.192
Photos show one of the best passes of the day, with Park, the Korean skater, coming from 4th behind the 3 Chinese skaters and pulling out a second place finish in the last corner.
Posted by noelle at 4:16 PM | Comments (0)
Day 2 in Heerenveen - 1500m finals A and B
Jordan Malone made some great passes and finished 4th behind 3 Korean skaters. Congratulations!!
1500m A final - men
1. LEE Ho-Suk KOR 2:20.739
2. SONG Kyung-Taek KOR 2:20.840
3. AHN Hyun-Soo KOR 2:21.218
4. MALONE Jordan USA 2:21.502
5. LI Ye CHN 2:21.814
6. SONG Weilong CHN 2:21.971
7. KERSTHOLT Niels NED 2:22.068
The women's A final was one of the best races of the day with 9 skaters on the line. It made for some interesting tactics and passing.
1500m A final - ladies
1. JUNG Eun-Ju KOR 2:20.530
2. JIN Sun-Yu KOR 2:20.814
3. ZHOU Yang CHN 2:20.922
4. OZAWA Mika JPN 2:23.455
5. LIU Qiuhong CHN 2:23.986
6. TER MORS Jorien NED 2:24.437
7. CAPURSO Marta ITA 2:25.451
8. MENG Xiaoxue CHN 2:39.570
9. YANG Shin-Young KOR 3:04.874
Also, I can't find results online for the women's B final, but the Bedfords sent a photo indicating that Mary Grace made it to the B final. Not sure how she finished, but here's the pic. Congrats, Mary!
ladies' 1500m B final
Posted by noelle at 3:51 PM | Comments (2)
November 23, 2007
Day 1 in Heerenveen - 1000m preliminaries
Mathieu Giroux and Travis Jayner
Jordan Malone
Kimberly Derrick
Carly Wilson
Mary Grace
Meng Wang and Kalyna Roberge
Posted by noelle at 8:07 PM | Comments (2)
Day 1 in Heerenveen - 500m #2 preliminaries
How not to pass Canada's Alex Boisvert-Lacroix in a 500. 1 second later he was flatted by 6'4" Alex and was taken to the hospital. (Hoping he's ok!)
Ryan Bedford
Katherine Reutter was 3rd off the line and worked her way to first with some great passing.
Katherine
Cherise Wilkins
Lana Gehring took the lead from the front and dominated with a very smooth performance.
Posted by noelle at 7:57 PM | Comments (2)
Day 1 in Heerenveen - 500m #1 preliminaries
Steve Robillard
Charles Hamelin
J.P. Kepka squeezed through 2 other skaters to win the start to the apex. He finished 1st.
Travis Jayner was 3rd off the line and finished 3rd. His time was the 2nd fastest 3rd, so he moves on to the next round.
Carly Wilson was 2nd off the line and stayed in 2nd until 1 lap to go when the Korean skater came from way back to move into 2nd place. Carly finished 3rd.
Cherise Wilkins was 2nd off the line and skated a solid line. The Russian skater came up at the finish and Cherise held her off in a photo finish.
Posted by noelle at 1:56 PM | Comments (1)
Day 1 in Heerenveen - 1500m heats
Jeff Simon sat in 6th place and with 6 laps to go, he goes with Marc-Andre Monette to make an outside pass. Monette gets to the front and Jeff settles into 3rd. He then passes the Russian into 2nd, but bumps him and is DQ'd.
Ryan Bedford was in 3rd for a few laps and dropped back to 6th. He moves his way up and gets bumped by the French skater. He moves into 3rd and on the last corner falls. He does not advance. The French skater was DQ'd.
Jordan Malone was in heat 5. He sits in the back and he and the China skater go with about 4 laps to go. Both skaters have a gap on 3rd and cruise to the finish.
In the women's 1500 heats, Katherine Reutter was in heat #2. She sat in 3rd and 4th until 7 laps to go and she made an outside pass and passed 3 skaters in 1/2 lap and stayed in the lead to the finish. She looked really strong.
Mary Grace was in heat 5. She was in the back following Amanda Overland. Then with 6 laps to go, Amanda went and Mary followed. The CZE skater fell and took out Amanda in the corner. Mary then went to 2nd place and stayed there to the end. Amanda was advanced.
Kimberly Derrick was in the 7th heat. She settled into 3rd place. She went for an outside pass and was stuck on the outside of a couple of skaters. She had a slip and fell back to 4th place. She passed into 3rd and worked her way up to the skaters in front, but it was too late. She ended up 3rd and did not advance.
Posted by noelle at 1:34 PM | Comments (0)
Canadian team in Heerenveen
These photos were also taken at Thursday's practice session.
Posted by noelle at 8:49 AM | Comments (4)
November 22, 2007
Thursday practice in Heerenveen
team photo taken after practice
Ryan Bedford and Jordan Malone
J.P. Kepka
Posted by noelle at 10:52 PM | Comments (4)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Here are some photos from Wednesday's U.S. team practice in Heerenveen (NED), where World Cup #3 gets underway tomorrow. Thanks to the Bedfords for sharing these with us - there will be more to come all weekend!
Carly Wilson and Lana Gehring
Carly and Katherine Reutter
Lana, Kimberly Derrick and Carly
the girls
the guys
Posted by noelle at 11:22 AM | Comments (13)
November 18, 2007
US Junior Short Track Championships
Congratulations to new U.S. junior champions J.R. Celski and Lana Gehring!
from day 2:
Bay City Times | Local skaters come close to national team spots
Morgan Izykowski needed a break and some luck in the Super 1,500 meter race Sunday in the U.S. Junior Short Track Speedskating Championships/World Team Trials at the Bay County Civic Arena. While the 16-year-old Bay County speedskater got a little break with the draw in the semifinals - two skaters did not race - there was no luck in the A finals.Izykowski finished sixth in the last event and wound up sixth overall (705) in the points race for three spots on the Junior World Team. Teammate Rachel Skrocki finished seventh (583).
Lana Gehring, 17, of Glenview, Ill., won the women's Junior title (4,200 points). The Senior World Team skater captured all but the final Super 1,500.
''I'm very excited to be the champ,'' said Gehring, who was flying out later Sunday night to join the Senior World Team competing next weekend in the Netherlands. ''The weekend went very well. I'm happy with it. 'The last race didn't really matter so I relaxed because I need to be at my peak next week.''
Bay City Times | Midlander falls short in bid for World spot
Although never had a chance at knocking off Junior champ J.R. Celski, of Long Beach, Calif., Barry Winslow had hopes of a top-3 spot until the DQ's left him behind Californians Kyle Uyehara (1,297) and Walter Rusk (1,272) and South Carolina's Robert Lawence (1,125).WInslow dropped to fourth after the 1,000 DQ for impeding, but was still in the mix for the third and final spot heading into the Super 1,500. Winslow, however, was called for cross-tracking in the first semifinal and was scratched from the final.
[Celski] won the 1,000-meter time trial and the 1,500 on Saturday and the 1,000 meter race (1 minute, 29.226 seconds) and Super 1,500 (2:23.086) on Sunday. ''The Junior title is cool. It's exciting,'' said Celski, 18. ''I really wanted that last race. I wanted to see how fast I could go.''
Celski, who won a bronze medal at the 2006 Junior World Championships, is looking forward to the Junior Worlds Jan. 11-13 in Borzano, Italy.
from day 1:
Bay City Times | Local skaters within striking distance at U.S. Junior Championships
Lana Gehring might be out of their league, but Bay County speedskaters Morgan Izykowski and Rachel Skrocki still have the third and final spot on the U.S. Junior World Team within their sights.Gehring, from Glenview, Ill., won the nine-lap 1,000-meter time trial, the 1,500-meter and 500-meter events Saturday to all but mathematically wrap up the U.S. Junior Short Track Speedskating Championships.
''Is Lana beatable? Maybe by the guys,'' said Joe Rohraff, Bay County Speedskating Club coach.
J.R. Celski of Federal Way, Wash., leads the men's division with 1,680, followed by Walter Rusk of California (1,096) and Barry Winslow of Midland (1,005).
Looking for a link to full results - anyone out there got one?
Posted by noelle at 8:06 AM | Comments (29)