August 10, 2005
Beijing Scrapbook -- Photos from 2005 Worlds
Copyright 2005 Pablo Galvez, canprophoto.com
Used by permission of americanshorttrack.com
Experience the pageantry and excitement of the most prestigious event of the past season. Visit our friends at American Short Track for post-event info, and -- count 'em -- 18 galleries of stunning Pablo Galvez photographs! You'll lose yourself for hours over there. Rush over now and enjoy!
Posted by noelle at 06:31 PM Comments (11)
April 14, 2005
Jerry Search photo galleries from Beijing
Jerry Search's comprehensive photo galleries from the 2005 World Championships in Beijing are now complete through day 3 of racing. There are definitely some exclusives in there... Check them out here!
Apolo en route to winning the 3000m
photos copyright © 2005, Jerry Search
- 2005 World Championships Galleries
- all Jerry Search photo galleries
Posted by noelle at 01:01 PM Comments (21)
April 02, 2005
New Video: Apolo's 1000m final in Beijing
Here's the first race from Beijing -- Apolo's gold-medal performance in the 1000m final on day 3 at the World Championships. It's an amazing, thrilling race!
Many thanks to Sonia and Maggie for making it available to us to enjoy!
Download it here.
Size: 10MB; running time: 1:59
Skaters in the race: Apolo Anton Ohno, Hyun-soo Ahn, Jiajun Li, Charles Hamelin
Posted by noelle at 10:53 PM Comments (16)
March 23, 2005
Tiggie's Beijing report
We are lucky to be able to continue living the Beijing experience vicariously, this time through Tiggie's report on her experiences in China. Just like she did last December in Saguenay, Tiggie was able to squeeze in a lot of sightseeing -- but it sounds like her most memorable moments took place on the ice.
Junko, Kimo and Tiggie at the Great Wall
Posted by noelle at 08:21 PM Comments (24)
March 21, 2005
Junko's Beijing report
Many thanks to Junko for writing up a detailed report of her adventures in Beijing. Here's what's inside: What it's like to watch short track live in China, all about Apolo's and the U.S. skaters' amazing races, an unexpected person offers sympathy on Apolo's 1500m DQ, and banquet photos! Read Junko's report.
Wherever Junko goes, handsome men appear. Here she is with two of Canada's finest (Guilmette and Tremblay).
Coming later this week:
+ Tiggie's Beijing report
+ Kimo and Jan's Beijing photos
Posted by noelle at 08:36 PM Comments (33)
March 18, 2005
Sonia's banquet photos (and more!) from China
Sonia is still in China (Hong Kong) but she found a way to send us photos!
The boys in bronze!
Bronze-medal winning U.S. men's relay team: Jordan Malone, Shani Davis, Apolo Ohno, Alex Izykowski
Posted by noelle at 10:07 PM Comments (25)
Historic photo - USA and Korean teams at the banquet!
The wonderful Kevin, Korea's new women's team coach, wanted very much to gather these 2 teams together for a photo opportunity in Budapest. It didn't work out, but looks like he got them together for us in Beijing! I can't wait to hear the story behind this shot. That's Kevin in green, next to Apolo.
click to enlarge
bottom row: Brigid Farrell, Allison Baver, World Champion Sun-yu Jin
2nd row: Hyo-jung Kim, Carly Wilson, ??, Yun-mi Kang
3rd row: Coach Kevin, Apolo Ohno, Jordan Malone, Seung-hoon Lee, Eun-kyung Choi, World Champion Hyun-soo Ahn, and a bunch of people I don't know
back row: Shani Davis, ??, Alex Izykowski, J.P. Kepka, ??, Kyung-taek Song(?), and more people I don't know
Posted by noelle at 09:47 PM Comments (27)
March 13, 2005
Apolo storms back to finish #2 overall in Beijing!
Strong performances by Ohno and Kepka earn the USA the right to send 3 men to Worlds next year
Men's overall podium in Beijing: Apolo Ohno (silver), Hyun-soo Ahn (gold), Francois-Louis Tremblay (bronze)
Copyright 2005 Pablo Galvez, capturedmemories.ca
Used by permission of americanshorttrack.com
Congratulations, Apolo! He's really thrilled us tonight with his awesome comeback from 2 difficult days in Beijing. Gold in the 1000 and in the 3000 gives Apolo silver overall on the weekend, with 68 points to victor Hyun-soo Ahn's 89 and Francois-Louis Tremblay's 60. It's certainly a bittersweet bronze for Flou, when the overall title was in sight for him, but he also has much to be proud of. And yes, I'll admit it's true that Ahn proved his chops with his victory this weekend, if there were any doubters left.
But the story for us has to be Apolo's. It's been an amazing rise for him. He started the day at #12 in the overall standings, and rose all the way to #2 at the conclusion, matching his #2 overall showing at the 2001 Worlds. Very impressive!
A World title would have been sweet, and Apolo was certainly capable of winning it this weekend, but Apolo proved his mettle in a dramatic way -- it's the stuff champions are made of. Apolo may not be THE champion but he IS a champion, in every sense of the word.
Overall men: 1. Hyun-soo Ahn (KOR - 89 pts), 2. Apolo Anton Ohno (USA - 68 pts), 3. Francois-Louis Tremblay (CAN - 60 pts), 4. Charles Hamelin (CAN - 42 pts), 5. Seung-hoon Lee (KOR - 26 pts), 6. Jiajun Li (CHN - 23 pts), 7. Takafumi Nishitani (JPN - 11 pts), 8. J.P. Kepka (USA - 6 pts)
Overall women: 1. Sun-yu Jin (KOR - 76 pts), 2. Eun-kyung Choi (KOR - 63 pts), 3. Yun-mi Kang (KOR - 60 pts), 4. Meng Wang (CHN - 52 pts), 5. Yang Yang A (34 pts), 11. Hyo-jung Kim (USA), 23. Allison Baver (USA)
Posted by noelle at 02:09 AM Comments (15)
Apolo in the 1000m final
United State's Apolo Anton Ohno, competes against China's Li Jiajun and Canada's Charles Hamelin in the men's 1000m event at the world short track speed skating championships held in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 13, 2005. Ohno won with a time of one minute 30.006 seconds. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Posted by noelle at 01:35 AM Comments (0)
Apolo is back - gold in the 1000m!
Apolo just showed the world what he's made of in winning the 1000m final. So proud of this comeback performance. Not much else I feel like saying right now -- except I knew he would do it this time. Way to go, Apolo! Congratulations on your gold medal.
JP will join Apolo in the 3000. Uh, theoretically I think Apolo could still win the title this weekend but Ahn would have to get DQed or finish last or something. Since that's unlikely, let's hope Apolo, Tremblay and Hamelin come out on top in the 3k, because the world champion is going to be decided in this race!
Here's one awesome development from this weekend. Thanks to our guys' performances, we're gonna get to send THREE men to skate individual in Worlds next year. I think that's the rule.
People Daily Online | Olympic champion Ohno win his first title in short track worlds
"After taking over the lead two laps from the finish line, Ohno... never gave his rivals any chance on Sunday."
Posted by noelle at 01:28 AM Comments (16)
1000m semifinals in Beijing
Wow... those were some nerve racking races. Thanks to a wild semifinal in which Yang Yang A fell and was disqualified, 3rd place finisher Amanda Overland advances to the ladies' final.
And on the men's side, Apolo Ohno won his loaded 5-man heat in convincing fashion -- more than a second ahead of 2nd place Jiajun Li. Tragically, overall leader Francois-Louis Tremblay finished 4th and won't skate in the final, which probably means goodbye to his hopes to win the title this weekend. (Sorry for tempting fate.) Mathieu Turcotte finished last in the race.
Charles Hamelin won the other semi, breathing life into his own hopes to win the world championship this weekend. Unfortunately Hyun-soo Ahn has his own ambition to successfully defend his title, and he'll be going to the 1000m final looking to do just that as he is currently second in the overall. JP Kepka finished 4th and won't move on.
This is a great lineup for the final. Ahn can count on no help if he wants to win this thing. There's 1 American, 1 Canadian, 1 Korean, 1 Chinese. Very nice.
Yay for Apolo going to his first final this weekend. Great way to mount a comeback!
Posted by noelle at 01:05 AM Comments (2)
March 12, 2005
Worlds day 3 - 1000m qualifying
Quarter finals: And then there were two (Americans, that is)
The women's quarter final heats were killer. Unfortunately for Allison Baver, she drew the defending world champion (Eun-kyung Choi) and the 6-time world champion (Yang Yang A) in her race and finished 3rd. No shame in that, but it brings what has been a tough weekend to a close for her. Halie Kim also faced a tough field and was eliminated after finishing 3rd behind Sun-yu Jin and Evgenia Radanova. Canada's Amanda Overland is the only North American woman moving on to the semis.
Better results on the men's side, as JP Kepka finished 2nd in his quarter final behind Flou Tremblay. In finishing 1-2, they very helpfully eliminated Korea's Kyung-taek Song, who finished last in the race. Apolo Ohno won his heat, with Charles Hamelin 2nd. Mathieu Turcotte also qualified for the semi finals.
Prelims and heats: Day three dawns with high hopes for Team USA... Smooth sailing for everyone as they all move on successfully through the prelims and heats to the quarter finals! Nothing interesting happened yet, just the way we like it at this stage of the game...
Posted by noelle at 09:50 PM Comments (9)
Insiders' view on day 2 in Beijing
Here's what my sources had to say about yesterday:
In Apolo's 500m semi, he was skating behind Charles Hamelin, waiting for a chance to move up. At that point Takafumi Nishitani was leading, followed by Hamelin, Apolo and Hyun-soo Ahn. Apolo found an opening where he attempted to pass Hamelin. It was a little tight, but when the team reviewed the video last night it appeared that Hamelin had perhaps cross-tracked on Apolo. At any rate, there was a bit of contact and Apolo had to back off, causing him to lose considerable speed.
The refs saw it differently from the team video and disqualified Apolo for impeding and advanced Hamelin. This is evidently when Ahn, biding his time at the back, was able to seize the chance to pass Apolo and Hamelin and move into 2nd. It just goes to show how subjective these things can be -- even the angle you view can change how things look.
Apolo is naturally disappointed that things haven't gone his way the past 2 days, but he is not upset with the referees or anything like that. Apolo also knows how these things go -- sometimes your way, other times not. He was able to successfully channel his frustration into an awesome relay performance in the semifinal. His fast split times tell the tale there: lap 27 - 8.3 seconds, lap 33 - 8.7 seconds, 8.9 seconds in the 2nd to last lap.
Anyone who attended the Salt Lake World Cup in 2003 knows how Apolo can turn the momentum around on day 3. Here's hoping he can continue channeling that frustration into strength in his 1000m and the relay final. Good luck Apolo and team USA!
Posted by noelle at 11:03 AM Comments (11)
Sweet! U.S. men win relay semifinal
What a great way to end the day... the U.s. men's relay team of Apolo Ohno, Shani Davis, Jordan Malone and Alex Izykowski beat Korea, Italy and Great Britain to move on to the relay final tomorrow. They'll face Korea, Canada and China.
Did you see that last exchange? Korea had retained the lead for quite a few laps by then, but on his anchor leg Apolo got out in front to win it for the USA. Would love to see them do that again tomorrow! Great work, team USA!
Posted by noelle at 03:16 AM Comments (10)
500m finals in Beijing
[updated 7:30pm Saturday evening]
Nice article from CBC Sports: Canada's Tremblay wins short-track world title
He'll probably never see this, but I want to publicly thank Charles Hamelin for this particular statement:
"Finishing 1-2 is extraordinary. I had a great start to the race and made a lot of successful passes. At the end I was a lot more defensive in order to not jeopardize our medal chances. It's not something we plan for, it's an individual decision made during the race."
It's almost like he could read my mind saying, 'I don't get it!' I think I get it now.
J.P. 5th in his first final; Chinese women sweep medals
It sure would have been nice to get the stars ands stripes up there on that podium today, but hats off to J.P. Kepka for the strong and consistent skating that brought him all the way to his first final at this level. After 2 days, he's the only American skater to reach a final. You had to know it would be tough going with the 2 Canadians, Nishitani and Ahn -- and J.P. starting in lane 4. So 
congratulations also to Francois-Louis Tremblay and Charles Hamelin on their gold and silver medals.
The dark horse in pre-event polling to win Worlds was Tremblay -- and now it looks like he's the best-positioned of anybody to do it. He moves into the overall lead with 55 points to Hyun-soo Ahn's 47. Meanwhile, on the women's side, we have a 3-way tie at the moment for first among Meng Wang, Yang Yang A and Sun-yu Jin.
It would have been fun to be a spectator in Beijing for the women's final, won by Yang Yang A, followed by Meng 
Wang (silver) and Tianyu Fu (bronze).
MSNBC | Chinese women skaters sweep 500 at short track worlds
"The [Chinese] teammates threw their victory bouquets to a wildly cheering crowd and took an extra victory lap after the awards ceremony, holding their national flag aloft."
images via Sina News - click for more
Posted by noelle at 02:35 AM Comments (12)
500m semifinals in Beijing
More heartbreak as Apolo bows out; J.P. goes to his first final!
Men: J.P. Kepka is on fire! Pitted against two strong Canadians and a Brit, he had his work cut out for him. The 500m is his distance though and he came out on top, with Francois-Louis Tremblay 2nd. Mathieu Turcotte ran into some trouble and evidently took a spill, finishing last. Good luck, J.P.! This looks to be his first individual final in a World Cup or World Championships.
Alas, J.P. will have no company in the final. Apolo Ohno's semi final turned into a nightmare for those of us 'watching' from afar. It was hard to keep track as the skaters' positions changed from lap to lap. The 1998 Olympic gold medalist at this distance, Takafumi Nishitani, showed he's still got it with his win. Hyun-soo Ahn snuck in for 2nd, leaving Apolo and Charles Hamelin out in the cold. Subsequently the referees reviewed the race and decided to disqualify Apolo and advance Hamelin.
What is it about the Worlds??
Women: Alanna Kraus, the last remaining North American, was eliminated after finishing last in her race. The 2nd semifinal, pitting 2 Chinese and 2 Korean skaters, was interesting. Yang Yang A came out on top in that one, with Eun-kyung Choi 2nd. Sun-yu Jin was subsquently disqualified, and China's Tianyu Fu advanced. This means there will be 3 Chinese skaters in the women's final. The hometown crowd must be delighted!
Posted by noelle at 02:06 AM Comments (21)
World Championships day 2 - 500m qualifying
quarter finals: It was a good run while it lasted, but the quarter finals were the end of the road for the American women. Halie Kim and Allison Baver both faced tough competition; Halie finished 3rd in her race behind Meng Wang and Alanna Kraus. Allison finished last in her race after falling, apparently on her own, with two laps to go. This is particularly unfortunate as she was in qualifying position when she fell.
Canadians Amanda Overland and Kalyna Roberge were also eliminated. Only Kraus moves on to the semifinals for the Canadian women.
All the guys are through! The Canadian men continue to enjoy smooth sailing as all won their respective heats. Apolo Ohno was assessed a false start in his race. He finished 2nd behind Flou Tremblay to advance to the semis. J.P. Kepka had an awesome quarter final, winning the race to Hyun-soo Ahn's 2nd. J.P. skated the 2nd fastest time today so far (42.195 -- only Mathieu Turcotte was faster).
Bring on the semis!
So far, so good
heats: Apart from a hiccup or two with Live Cyberscoreboard, there has been nothing really to report -- and at this stage, that's a good thing! Four out of four Americans advance to the 500m quarter finals, as do 6 of 6 Canadians. Keep it up, guys...
prelims: Day 2 in Beijing is off to a much better start so far. All the American and Canadian skaters are through to the next round, as expected, with nothing unusual to report from any of their races. Hyo-jung Kim and J.P. Kepka won their races; Allison Baver and Apolo Ohno finished 2nd in theirs. Go USA!
Posted by noelle at 12:10 AM Comments (8)
March 11, 2005
Worlds Day 1 - 1500m finals
[update #2 10:20am ET]
Here's the inside scoop on what happened today:
Apolo's 1500m semi: Apolo was in the lead with 7 laps to go. Kyung-taek Song took over the lead with 4 to go and was skating very defensively. Then in the last lap, before the corner, Mathieu Turcotte tried to slip inside of Apolo but Apolo didn't let him in. At that point, Turcotte fell, taking Apolo with him. Apolo was DQ'ed and Turcotte advanced to the final. Though the Canadians might disagree, sentiment in the U.S. camp seems to be that the call should have gone the other way.
Men's 1500m final: This sounded wild also. Apparently Turcotte fell, just on his own, and took Charles Hamelin with him this time. Hyun-soo Ahn was skating at the back of the pack and was judged lucky to emerge the winner of this race. Ahn's teammate Song was DQed for cross-tracking. Despite two of the Canadian men's misfortune in this race, they are said to be skating superbly.
The U.S. skaters' preparation and fitness are also excellent. Apolo is said to have skated an 8.3 second lap in practice yesterday. The skaters just had a run of bad luck today but there is no reason they can't bounce back.
[update #1] - Check out the comments for some eyewitness commentary.
With Apolo out of the final and no North Americans at all on the women's side, it was all up to the Canadian guys to salvage the day for us fans. Congratulations to Francois-Louis Tremblay on his silver medal in the 1500m. He finished the race in 3rd, but got a hardware upgrade after Kyung-taek Song was disqualified. One guess who won gold.
Men's 1500m final: 1. Hyun-soo Ahn (KOR), 2. Tremblay (CAN), 3. Seung-hoon Lee (KOR), 4. Jiajun Li (CHN), 5. Charles Hamelin (CAN), 6. Mathieu Turcotte (CAN), Song DQ (KOR)
Women's 1500m final: 1. Sun-yu Jin (KOR, 2. Yun-mi Kang (KOR), 3. Meng Wang (CHN), 4. Eun-kyung Choi (KOR), 5. Yuka Kamino (JPN), 6. Evgenia Radanova (BUL)
Bad luck comes in threes
Isn't that what they say? Let's review:
1. Allison Baver receives a technical DNF after winning her 1500m heat
2. Hyo-jung Kim apparently falls in her semi final and is DNF*
3. Apolo Ohno DQed in his semifinal
actually, there's another:
4. The U.S. women finished 3rd in their relay semi and won't advance to the final.
* Word is that Halie was fine but slow to get up after her fall so they halted the race. The officials did not allow her to continue. Meanies.
The Canadian women were 2nd in their semi and will face Korea, China and Japan in the final on Sunday.
I wish Cyberscoreboard would put the splits up so we could try to make sense of #2 and #3. Most of all, I hope Halie is okay. And if the saying is true, at least maybe the bad stuff is out of the way already. *crosses fingers, toes and eyes*
Posted by noelle at 06:45 AM Comments (32)
World Championships day 1 - 1500m heats and semis
1500m semis
Evil luck or bewitched ice? Either way, it's not a good day for the USA
Men: Live Cyberscoreboard isn't showing any race details... all we're seeing is the gun go off to signal the race has started, then nothing more till the results flash on the screen. So it was a sickening feeling to see Apolo Ohno and Mathieu Turcotte 5th and 6th respectively in their semifinal. It doesn't seem possible that that field could beat them both so badly. Ultimately we learned the race was under review... at first it seemed that Turcotte would be DQed, but then it turned out that Apolo was disqualified, and Turcotte advanced to the final.
All these 1500m heats and semis are too full of skaters. That isn't helping. *grumble* The women's final will havee three Koreans and no Americans or Canadians. The men's final is a trippy combination of 3 Canadians, 3 Koreans, a token Chinese for good measure -- and no Apolo.
Can I go back to bed now? I think Worlds hasn't started yet and I'm just having nightmares.
Women: Hyo-jung Kim's race had to be stopped and restarted due to a fall due to a fall early on. Then Live CSB showed no activity when they finally got the race underway. Something seems very wacky when Hyo-jung Kim finishes 5th and Alanna Kraus last. Yes, it's a semi and a strong field, but not that strong!
Further info is that Halie did not finish. Liesbeth Mau Asam of the Netherlands was DQ'ed... not sure if there is a connection there, or if Halie was perhaps the skater who fell when they first tried to run this race. Let's hope she's ok... a DNF is not a comforting sign or a reassuring start to the weekend for the USA. Hopefully we'll hear more from the fans on the ground in Beijing!
1500m heats
A disappointing early exit for Allison Baver
Women: Everything seemed to be going so smoothly for the North American women in their 1500m heats until the final race. Allison Baver spent much of the race at the back of the pack before moving to the front with 7 laps to go. She appeared to win the race with ease. Unfortunately, she was marked as DNF with the explanation that Baver 'did not cross the finish line'; technically this means she did not finish the race.
As far as I can tell, the finish line isn't visible in the Finishlynx photo. However, Allison appears to be well to the inside of the other skaters.
How it's possible not to cross the finish line, I can't guess! What a pity.
Hyo-jung Kim and Canada's Alanna Kraus both won their heats. Kalyna Roberge and Amanda Overland, the other two Canadians, finished 2nd in theirs so all four will move on to the semifinals.
Men: I'm a bit heartbroken that J.P. Kepka won't move onto the semis. He skated such a solid race, in 1st and 2nd for the entire time until China's Ye Li beat him for 2nd place at the wire by a minuscule .004 sec! Check out the photo finish. It was a great race by J.P., he should be proud after getting seeded into one of the tougher heats! Canadian Charles Hamelin, skating in the same heat, was at the back for much of the race till taking the lead with 4 to go to win.
Apolo Ohno's heat was one of the crazier ones. The skaters in his heat were all over the place with constant jockeying for position. With all that passing going on, Apolo didn't move up for good until 4 laps to go. He took the lead with 3 to go and won the heat.
Canadians Mathieu Turcotte and Francois-Louis Tremblay easily won their respective eats, so the lucky Canucks are 6 for 6 so far.
Posted by noelle at 03:49 AM Comments (12)
February 26, 2005
Men's 1500m medalists in Milwaukee
Thanks to Yano for this awesome shot of Rusty, Apolo and J.P. on the medal stand!
Posted by noelle at 09:53 AM Comments (6)