March 18, 2007
Results from Hungary - World Team Championships day 2
Ladies Team Championship
1. Korea 56 pts
2. China 28 pts
3. Canada 23 pts
4. USA 13 pts
from the 'B' finals: 5.Japan, 6. Hungary, 7. Russia
(the Italian Ladies team did not skate)
Mens Team Championship
1. Canada 43 pts
2. Korea 33 pts
3. Italy 26 pts
4. USA 18 pts
from the 'B' finals: 5. Hungary, 6. Germany, 7. Australia, 8. Ukraine
There was drama in the Mens 3000m race. Ahn Hyun-Soo and Song Kyung-Taek did not finish the race. Cyberscoreboard split times show them leading at lap 20, then in 7th and 8th positions with long lap times until the last lap with no time and DNF recorded. Song did skate in the 5000m relay.
Posted by noelle at 8:48 PM | Comments (14)
March 17, 2007
Results from Hungary - World Team Championships day 1
Italy (1) and USA (2) men's teams advanced through the repechage to join Korea and Canada in Sunday's A Finals. In the B are Hungary, Australia, Germany, Ukraine.
Canada (1) and USA (2) ladies teams advanced through the repechage to join Korea and China in the A Finals. In the B are Italy, Japan, Russia and Hungary.
Travis Jayner reported earlier today between Bracket #2 races and the Repechage: "The relay was good, we did just enough work to beat the third place team. Now it is time for some rest and food, then we get to do it again tonight. Us, the Italians, Germans and the home team. I know we can make it to the A final....... Jordan [Malone] hurt himself when he fell in the 1000m."
No other details about Jordan, except that he didn't skate in the repechage races. Hope he's doing okay!
Posted by noelle at 5:06 PM | Comments (19)
March 16, 2007
World Team Championships this weekend
[update] A downloadable/printable scorecard to help you keep track during World Teams... in Word format.
Final short track competition of the season takes place Saturday and Sunday in Budapest. I have too much going on this weekend to be able to real-time updates but will certainly post results and photos (if available) when I can. In the meantime, here are links and info for your reference:
Official World Team Championships web site
Cyberscoreboard for real-time and detailed results
Racing both days begins at 10am Hungarian time (5AM ET / 2AM PT) - detailed schedule here.
World Teams is MUCH different from anything else in ST. WorldShortTrack.com has a helpful primer on how it works - it's a quick read: World Team Championships
Posted by noelle at 10:08 AM | Comments (4)
March 12, 2007
Video clips: 2007 Worlds
[update] High-quality clips of several races are available to download as well. It takes a very long time to get them, so my recommendation is to do it in the background while you're working on something else and go back to it later. Once it's all downloaded, you can watch the entire clip without difficulty.
Loads of clips from the first 2 days in Milan are available on YouTube, so if you missed the SBS feed or just want to relive some moments, check it out. Thanks to Starangel for posting the link!
Posted by noelle at 4:44 PM | Comments (20)
March 11, 2007
World Championships overall results
Korea's Hyun-Soo Ahn, Canada's Charles Hamelin and Apolo Anton Ohno of US smile on the podium after the men's 3000 M superfinal of the World Short Track Speed Skating Championship 2007 in Milan, 11 March 2007. Ahn won the overall championship ahead of Canada's Charles Hamelin and Apolo Anton Ohno of US who came thrid. AFP PHOTO / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
Top 8 overall in Milan:
Men
World Champion - Hyun-soo Ahn - becomes the sport's 1st male 5-time world champ
Silver overall - Charles Hamelin - moves up from 4th overall in 2006
Bronze overall - Apolo Ohno - won overall silver in 2001 and 2005
4.Kyung-taek Song
5. Francois-Louis Tremblay - bronze overall in 2005 & 2006
6. Nicola Rodigari - 7th overall in 2006
7. Jordan Malone - no previous individual ranking at Worlds
8. Yuri Confortola - no previous individual ranking at Worlds
Women
World Champion - Sun-yu Jin - threepeats - now halfway to Yang Yang A's record
silver overall - Eun-ju Jung - 2006 World Junior Champion
bronze overall Kalyna Roberge - 2nd year in a row as bronze overall
4. Yang Zhou
5. Arianna Fontana
6. Tianyu Fu - 4th overall in 2006
7. Chun-sa Byun - 2003 world junior champ
8. Allison Baver - was 5th overall in 2006
Korea's Sun-Yu Jin countryfellow Eun-JU Jung and Kalyna Roberge of Canada stand on the podium of the World Short Track Speed Skating Championship 2007 in Milan, 11 March 2007. Jin won the overall championship ahead of Jung and Roberge who came thrid AFP PHOTO / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
Congratulations to Apolo, Allison and Jordan on their extremely strong performances. We're so proud of you! Pretty damn amazing for 2 skaters who hadn't competed all season, and another who never competed individually at Worlds! Way to go to all Team USA skaters for your outstanding performances this weekend! Can't wait to see what next season brings...
Posted by noelle at 12:30 PM | Comments (84)
Relays!
Our guys get on the podium! They earned bronze in the relay final. Skating today were Apolo, Jordan, Ryan and Travis. Anthony skated in yesterday's semifinal. Congrats, guys!
Men's relay
1. KOR
2. CAN
3. USA
4. ITA
Women's relay
1. KOR
2. CHN
3. CAN
4. ITA
Posted by noelle at 12:28 PM | Comments (4)
Live-blogging Worlds day 3 - 3000m finals
Both world champions will be determined by the outcome of the superfinal, in which the top 8 skaters overall (with final points) compete. Essentially, the winner of each superfinal will be world champion, barring bizarre permutations that could see the ultimate champion not win this race, but it seems like an unlikely scenario.
For the women, it will be Eun-ju Jung or 2-time World Champion Sun-yu Jin. Kalyna Roberge has a mathematical chance but not a realistic one. You have to wonder what the scenario would have been if Meng Wang were here. Perhaps not all that different.
For the men, Ahn, Hamelin or Ohno.
Men's superfinal: Again, start of races catches me off guard. Argh! Song and Malone look like they're up there setting th epace. It's not super slow. Apolo is mid-pack, Ahn behind him, Hamelin just off the pace behind the frontrunners. Man, Song is really pulling them along although he seems to be slowing down, actually. Apolo has moved up a bit now. Is Song lapping, or attempting to? looks like he is. Ahn is in 2nd now - Apolo, why are you at the back? You have time, but not THAT much. Charles is ruight up there with Ahn. Ohno and Malone still bringin up the rear. Ahn has dropped back too. Geez you guys. Ahn is back again. Ohno challenging. My heart is pounding! Song wins... for pride! I guess he did lap, or close. Ahn gets silver, Ohno bronze.
overall winners Apolo Anton Ohno, bronze medal, of the United States, Korea's Hyun-Soo Ahn, gold, and Canada's Charles Hamelin, silver, on podium after the men's 3000-meter final at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, March 11, 2007. (AP Photo/Alison Gilkes)
Wow, congratulations to 5 time consecutive world champ, Hyun-soo Ahn! That's never been done before.. right? Way to go Charles Hamelin with overall silver! And welcome back Apolo. Strong performance, esp. after missing the season.
3000m results - men
1. Song
2. Ahn
3. Ohno
4. Hamelin
5. Tremblay
6. Rodigari
7. Confortola
8. Malone
Women's superfinal: Oh, finally! They always wait till I'm distracted before starting the race. Allison Baver is out in front now but it's still waaay early. Presumably no one made an attempt to lap. You usually don't see that with the women anyway. Roberge is i nthe hunt there in 3rd. Jung, Jin and Byun are stalking from the back of the pack. How long will that last?
not long, they're moving up, Roberge has dropped back.It's getting hard to scroll back and forth to follow who's where. Jung and Jin are racing for it now though. JIN WINS - SHE IS WORLD CHAMPION! Jung gets silver. They both end up with 89 points, but Jin's win in the 3k will break that tie.
3000m results - women
1. Jin
2. Jung
3. Zhou
4. Roberge
5. Fontana
6. Fu?
7. Baver
8. Byun?
Posted by noelle at 11:12 AM | Comments (20)
Live-blogging Worlds day 3 - 1000m finals
Bronze medallist Ohno Apolo Anton of the U.S., gold medallist Ahn Hyun-Soo of South Korea and silver medallist Charles Hamelin of Canada pose on the podium after the men's 1000 metres short track speed skating final at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2007 in Milan March 11, 2007. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo (ITALY)
Men's final: Ack! I've missed the first half the men's race... its outcome will be decisive. Sort of. Like Jin, Ahn Hyun-soo wants to threeFIVEpeat today. Ahn wins gold, Charles Hamelin smells an overall title in his grasp with his silver medal, Ohno gets bronze and is still very much in the hunt. Points are so close ... the only way Apolo wins the overall title is by winning 3000m gold (or Ahn and Hamelin having really bad luck). This is a race Apolo can win as he has so many times before. I predict it comes down to him and Ahn but definitely not counting Charles out at all.
Canada's Charles Hamelin is outsprinted for gold by Korea's Hyun-Soo Ahn, as Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States sprints for bronze in front of Canada's Francois-Louis Tremblay in the 1000-meter final at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, March 11, 2007. (AP Photo/Alison Gilkes)
1000m men's final - results
1. Ahn
2. Hamelin
3. Ohno
4. Tremblay
5. Confortola
REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo(ITALY)
Again, the superfinal will be the determining race. Hold on to your hats!
Overall points after 3 events:
Ahn - 60
Hamelin - 55
Ohno - 47
Tremblay - 29
Rodigari - 21
Malone - 13
Women's final: Two Koreans vs. two Chinese... I think I know who will win. Yes, Sun-yu Jin will try to pull out another overall championship on the final day of competition. She takes gold, current overall leader Eun-ju Jung takes silver, with Yang Zhou earning bronze.
1000m women's final - results
1. Jin
2. Jung
3. Zhou
4. Fu
Bronze medallist Zhou Yang of China, gold medallist Jin Sun-yu of South Korea and her compatriot silver medallist Jung Eun-Ju stand on the podium after the women's 1000 metres short track speed skating final at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2007 in Milan March 11, 2007. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo(ITALY)
It will all come down to the superfinal to determine the 2007 World Champion, but it will be a Korean lady. Mathematically, Kalyna Roberge could still win it all, but it woud take her winning the 3000m and abysmal performances or DQs by Jin and Jung for it to happen.
Overall points after 3 events
Jung - 68
Jin - 55
Roberge - 34
Fontana - 21
Zhou - 21
Posted by noelle at 10:47 AM | Comments (9)
Live-blogging Worlds day 3 - 1000m semifinals
Men's semis: AAO is in semi 1 with FLT. There seems to be a ton of passing going on, unsurprisingly. At least Apolo never appears to get stuck in the back. he makes his move with 2-3 to go and wins the race. Yuri Confortola earns the 2nd slot in the final - awesome! Something about that home ice magic. Flou is 4th and won't move on. Bummer. Unless... ? Kyung-taek Song is dq'ed. YES! Flouie is advanced to the final.
Ok, 'Maloney', you're up now. This semi is just heinous. Did I say go to the back of the pack? No, stay with Charles up there. Oy, Jordan. Hyun-soo Ahn, who'd been malingering in the back, zooms to the front, Hamelin takes 2nd. Jordan is last. He evidently fell - on his own, or was there interference? Whatever happened took place when he was in qualifying position (according to split times)... Alas, no call. {udpate} Simon P got word that Jordan hit a block - so he fell on his own. A pity, because he was in 2nd between Hamelin and Ahn when it happpened.
According to my calculations (always a sketchy proposition) Jordan can't be knocked out of the top 8, and therefore is assured of skating in the 3000m superfinal.
Women's semis: These semis, predictably, could easily be finals... can't wait to see 'em later on on SBS or YouTube. Eun-ju Jung, hoping she's on her way to her coronation later today, came out on top and Tianyu Fu of China will join her in the final. Italy's pocket rocket Arianna Fontana made a very strong bid to join them but just missed out on qualifying. Girlfriend is 16, so just wait!
Skating in the 2nd semi, Allison Baver had a really strong race, sitting in 2nd most of the way behind Yang Zhou. The marvelous Sun-yu Jin accelerated around them all though to take the lead and nudge Allison out of qualifying position. Still shaken up by her fall in the quarters, Kalyna Roberge never seemed to threaten and finished last. So North American ladies are finished now with the 1000-meters.
Posted by noelle at 10:06 AM | Comments (5)
Live-blogging Worlds day 3 - 1000m quarter finals
Men's quarters: Wake me up when something interesting happens! I am missing the video... FLT made it out easy in his 1000m quarter to earn a ticket to the semis. Kinda weird to see European champ Nicola Rodigari finish last in that race but they're all strong skaters at this point.
Yikes, things just got a little interesting for my tastes, I'm awake now. Jordan Malone was coasting along, it appeared, in the lead in a rather icky heat (Ahn and Hu Ze)... all the scoreboard tells us now is that Hu is the apparent winner. And it's on to the next race, so who knows what happened. [update] WHEW! CSB was way wrong. Ahn won and Jordan made it out in 2nd. Hu did not qualify so not sure what CSB was on about originally.
Charles Hamelin joins Flou in the semis. Surprisingly, Kyung-taek Song is out but perhaps he will be advanced; there was a DQ. Yes, he is advanced. Man, 2 of 3 Korean guys had hard trips to the semis today.
AAO, Olivier Jean, Ye Li AND Byeong-Jun Kim - what a lineup! Apolo wins this thing, despite what looks like a hiccup late in the race, and Jean and Kim seem to trade places at the last second - Jean winds up 2nd and Kim last. Hope that was all clean. But no. Olivier, Olivier (that was a weird movie, btw)... I was afraid of this. He has attained the dubious distinction of being disqualified in every event this weekend. What a sensational season he's had but the overall lack of experience is catching up with him.
women's quarters: Allison Baver is up first in a pretty tough quarter - looks like she led wire to wire, and finished 2nd to move on to the semis. Good girl! Kalyna Roberge ran into trouble, falling early in the same heat and finishes a full minute off the pace. We'll have to see if the refs make a call there... uh oh. From Peggy Aitken: "Kalyna just fell and is holding her arm and shoulder." Sure hope she is ok!
[update] Kalyna is ok. Chinese skater was disqualified and Kalyna advanced to the semis.
Amanda Overland is next. Must be tough to skate right after your teammate has a mishap. Dang, Amanda is 3rd.
Man, Italy's Arianna Fontana is a great little skater, I hope she keeps improving and challenging the big girls. She's only 16 so she should... and she's off to the semis, with Byun. In general, it's just nice to see more Europeans doing well this season.
Posted by noelle at 9:26 AM | Comments (5)
Live-blogging Worlds day 3 - 1000m prelims & heats
Men's heats: Heat 3 - Feel free to move up a bit, Charles Hamelin. There's a fellow. He finishes first, B. Kim is 2nd. FLT makes it 2 for 2 for the Canajuns.
Jordan Malone is first up for the USA and gets an easy win. This should be a good day for him, it's a strong distance for him as it is for AAO. Just stay on your feet, kid!
And now it's Ohno's turn! Man, you'd never know he took the season off, I love it. Although I could really thank him to move up into qualifying position already. Is he waiting for the last lap again? Yep! It's just hard to know for sure with CSB, but Apolo wins the heat in the end and that's what we care about...
And with Olivier Jean's win, all remaining North American guys survive to skate another race.
Women's heats: They're picking top 2 plus 2 fastest 3rds... Man, I hope CSB isn't down because this seems like the longest ice resurface ever otherwise. Disadvantage to Kimberly Derrick skating in heat 1. She'll have to wait to see if her time of 1:35.420 holds up, but it probably won't since everyone knows what to beat now. *fingers crossed*
Anne Maltais looked to be safely through in 2nd, but no she's 3rd with a slower time than KD, 1:37.523.
Go Amanda Overland! This is your distance too. Excellent job... and Kimberly's time is holding up so far. Kalyna Roberge follows in the next heat. Looked like she was going to skate away with it, but she's 2nd. I was really beginning to wonder about Evgenia Radanova, sitting in 4th the whole time but she powered to the lead in the final lap, it looks like.
Bummer... Kimberly's time won't hold up, so she's eliminated. We had to wait for the final heat to see Allison Baver make it safely out to the quarterfinals.
Prelims below the jump
Men's prelims: Twelve heats to get through in round 1. Top 2 qualify plus 4 fastest 3rd place finishers... Not surprised they started early today; Sunday is always the longest day at Worlds. Olivier Jean had an effortless trip through. I was really hoping for the Israeli skater to make it out in the same heat, but no such luck. Speaking of Israel, anyone know what became of Denis Zaslavsky? I loved that guy.
Charles Hamelin, just hanging out at the back of the pack, biding his time till 2 laps to go. And wins. Now Jordan Malone is up. This race should not be a problem. If CSB had actually shown it to us! Hmph. So is it my imagination or are they re-running heat 7 (Rodigari)?
Yay, they're showing AAO's heat! He's sort of pulling a Hamelin, which is really an Ohno, and makes it up front by the final lap or two. How cool is it that there is a skater called Aslan in this race? Go Kazakh lion! Hm. The lion sleeps tonight - he comes in last.
Yikes, at the end I thought Anthony Lobello had this one! He's 3rd... that time looks like it could be good enough to qualify him as one of the 4 fastest thirds... let's hope so. [update] Sadly, Anthony did not make it out... Jordan's result is now up - he won his heat in one of the faster winning times posted so far.
Hey, Felipe de Souza is back! I saw him make Brazil's short track debut a few seasons back. Super nice guy. As is Kiwi skater Blake Skjellerup, but no way is his 3rd place time going to be good enough for him to advance, methinks. And Blake is DQ'ed, so it's a moot point. I hope they advance Felipe.
Just like all the Israeli skaters are Russian, all the Romanian skaters are Hungarian. Zsolt Istvan Pataki - it doesn't get more Magyar than that! Francois-Louis Tremblay wins handily against an all Eastern bloc field...
Women's prelims: Darn it, I'm late again and have missed half the women's preliminary heats. They always monkey around with the published schedule at worlds without telling us back home... But I am happy to see that Allison Baver, Amanda Overland and Anne Maltais are all safely through so far. Yay, Kimberly Derrick is also through, as one of the fastest 3rd place finishers; Kalyna Roberge won this same heat.
Posted by noelle at 6:43 AM | Comments (20)
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)
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)
January 19, 2007
Final results from Junior Worlds
Sorry for the very delayed updates this week. Hopefully everyone who wanted results knew to go straight out to Cyberscoreboard to find them... Here's a rundown of official day 3 results.
Outstanding result for Jeff Simon to go with his 500m silver - this is the first top 5 overall finish for an American at Junior Worlds in at least 6 years.
Overall Classification - MEN
1 SHIN , Woo-Chul KOR 89 points
2 LEE , Jung-Su KOR 76
3 JANG , Won-Hoon KOR 34
4 WEI , Jiguang CHN 34
5 SIMON , Jeff USA 26
15 MARSICANO , Trevor USA (60)
45 CHO , Simon USA (131)
Overall Classification - LADIES
1 YANG , Shin-Young KOR 110
2 SHIN , Sae-Bom KOR 66
3 PARK , Seung-Hi KOR 55
4 ZHAO , Nannan CHN 44
5 KONG , Xue CHN 21
16 61 DUDEK , Alyson USA (49)
18 62 GRACE , Mary USA (57)
25 60 REUTTER , Katherine USA (75)
Big congratulations to the young USA Team for a strong performance in the Czech Republic, capped off by the U.S. men's relay silver last Sunday - way to go!
Men's 2000m relay final
1. KOREA 2:46.936
2. UNITED STATES 2:48.565
DQ FRANCE 2:48.204
DQ CANADA 2:47.009
The Canadian men seem to have ran into quite a bit of DQ trouble throughout last weekend.
Ladies' 2000m relay final
1. KOREA 2:54.136
2. CHINA 2:54.350
3. CANADA 2:55.460
4. HUNGARY 2:55.608
Visit Cyberscoreboard for results from the men's and women's 1000m and 1500m superfinal.
Also, some news links:
USOEC | Skaters Take Home Hardware
“I started in lane four [the outside lane], so I knew I would have a tough race,†said Simon. “I have top speed, but not acceleration, so I started out in the back and tried to stay out of trouble. I worked the whole time to build speed and I caught up with the rest of the group in the last four laps. I set up an inside pass right before crossing the finish line.
“After the race, everything was quiet. They showed my name in second on the screen and [USOEC head coach and Junior World Team head coach] Jimmy [Jang] screamed, ‘yes!’ My teammates gave me high-fives and hugs. They set the podium up on the ice and I got my medal. It was a good feeling.â€
Donga.com | Korea’s Short Track Outlook Bright
CP | Canada wins women's relay bronze
Posted by noelle at 1:49 PM | Comments (3)
January 13, 2007
Results from Junior Worlds, day 2 - 500m silver for Jeff Simon!
Yay, Cyberscoreboard! Today they've got not only results and split times -- the latter first appeared yesterday -- but photo finishes are up for the first time this season now, too. Great progress! Can the live scoreboard be far behind?! Crossing fingers...
Relay semis: On the men's side, Team USA finished 2nd in their semi to join the teams from Canada, Korea and France in Sunday's final. The U.S. ladies won't move on to the final - but they put up a strong fight, finishing a close third behind Korea and China. The teams from Canada, Korea, China and Hungary will face off in the women's final.
Men's 500m: Way to go Jeff Simon, who earned the first North American medal of the meet with his 2nd place finish in the men's 500m final - starting from lane 4, no less! Photo finish - they were all over the place in a close fight for silver and bronze!
Men's 500m final
1. WEI, Jiguang CHN 42.589
2. SIMON, Jeff USA 42.953
3. SHIN, Woo-Chul KOR 42.978
DQ GAO, Ming CHN DQ
Other North Americans:
- Trevor Marsicano was eliminated in the second-round heats
- Simon Cho was going strong till his 500m semi. The posted time indicates he fell (probably on his own) with 2 or so laps to go
- Somewhat surprising to see no Canadians make it as far as the semis today. Nic Bean was eliminated in the quarter finals
- Andre Vicent and Maxime Fortin were both eliminated in second-round heats (Fortin DQ'ed)
Women's 500m:
Women's 500m final
1. SHIN, Sae-Bom KOR 45.416
2. ZHAO, Nannan CHN 45.533
3. BELOVA, Ekaterina RUS 46.518
4. YANG, Shin-Young KOR 1:05.543
North American skaters:
- Alyson Dudek was eliminated the quarter finals
- Mary Grace was disqualified in her second-round heat
- Katherine Reutter didn't advance out of her prelim race
- Canadians: Valerie Lambert made it as far as the 500m semis, where she finished 4th in her race; Ivanie Blondin was eliminated in the quarter finals while Valerie Maltais did not advance out of her heat
Complete results from Cyberscoreboard
Posted by noelle at 4:49 PM | Comments (28)
January 12, 2007
Results from Junior Worlds, day 1
Cyberscoreboard has partial results from the first day of competition in Mlada Boleslav. Today skaters competed in the 1500m and, seemingly, qualifying heats in the 2000m relay but results from today's finals and the relays are not officially available. (Naturally, it's the information people most want to know that's missing!)
Men's 1500m results: On the U.S. side, Simon Cho was disqualified in his 1500m heat, while Trevor Marsicano and Jeff Simon made it as far as the semis. They finished 5th and 6th in their respective races.
Among the North American men, only Canada's Nic Bean made it to the 1500m final - way to go! His teammates ran into DQ trouble in earlier rounds, with Vincent Andre dq'ed in his quarter final and Maxime Fortin in his semi.
Based on distance classification results, I *think* this is the order of finish for the men's final - but if so, the posted times don't make a whole lot of sense, do they?
Men's 1500m final
1. LEE , Jung-Su KOR 2:24.300
2. SHIN , Woo-Chul KOR 2:20.914
3. KNOCH , Viktor HUN 2:19.181
4. BEAN , Nicholas CAN 2:21.096
5. CHATAIGNIER , Maxime FRA 2:25.594
6. YE , Liming CHN 2:20.087
7. BERTOLDI , Marco ITA 2:19.810
Women's 1500m results: Canada's Valerie Maltais became the sole N. American skater in the women's final after she was advanced from her semi final (she and a Dutch skater appear to have tangled). Ivanie Blondin made it to the semis of her favorite distance with seeming ease, where she finished an uncharacteristic last. From the times it appears she may have slipped and/or fallen. Valerie Lambert was eliminated in the quarter finals.
On the U.S. side, Katherine Reutter and Mary Grace both put in strong performances to skate their way to the semis. Katherine's 3rd place finish left her a spot shy of qualifying for the final; Mary finished 4th in her semi final. Alyson Dudek was eliminated in the quarter finals.
Again based on Cyberscoreboard's 1500m distance classification, here are results from the ladies' 1500m final - at least these times make sense:
Women's 1500m final
1. YANG , Shin-Young KOR 2:19.186
2. SHIN , Sae-Bom KOR 2:19.234
3. PARK , Seung-Hi KOR 2:19.990
4. KONG , Xue CHN 2:20.953
5. ZHAO , Nannan CHN 2:21.675
6. MALTAIS , Valerie CAN 2:22.610
7. WANG , Shuang CHN 2:28.692
[update] Congratulations to the Katherine Reutter on her 8th-place ranking in the 1500m due to her fast 3rd-place finish in her semifinal. In addition, it appears that both the U.S. and Canadian men and women's relay teams advanced to the semi finals taking place Saturday.
One encouraging sign - for the first time since Cyberscoreboard switched hands this season, they are posting split times with the results from each heat! official results here
Posted by noelle at 5:25 PM | Comments (14)