Meanwhile, in Belgium...

Gray and Wheeler Win Gold as U.S. Tallies Six Medals on Opening Day of Sylvester Cup Short Track Meet in Belgium
LEUVEN, Belgium, December 6, 2003 - Derek Gray (Norton Shores, Mich.) won the men's 500-meters and Jade Wheeler (Los Alamitos, Calif.) captured the ladies' 1500-meters on the opening day of the two-day Sylvester Cup Short Track meet in Belgium on Saturday.
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World Cup #4 Day 2: 500 and Relay Semis

It was a wild day at the races, with plenty of DQ's to go around!

Ladies' 500m
Caroline Hallisey was once again the only U.S. lady to advance out of her heat, making it to the quarterfinals, where she finished third. Maria Garcia endured difficulties, with "three re-starts of her 500-meter heat after she fell or was taken out three consecutive times off the starting line," according to US Speedskating. The ladies' quarterfinals were pretty wild, with 2 DQ's each in quarterfinal 1 and 2, including that of world champion Choi Eun-kyung (KOR), followed by the DQ of her teammate Byun Chun-sa in quarterfinal heat 3. Two more DQ's followed in ladies' semifinal #1, resulting in the elimination of Amelie Goulet-Nadon (CAN) and the surprise qualification of Great Britain's Joanna Williams for the 500 final. The final turned into a hometown crowd-pleaser, with Meng Wang (CHN) taking first, teammate Tianyu Fu second and Evgenia Radanova (BUL) third. Check out the close finish!

See also Chinese Wang Meng crowned at short track World Cup (via Xinhuanet)

Men's 500m
The U.S. men got off to a strong start, with all three advancing to the quarterfinals as Rusty Smith and Apolo (starting from lane 5) won their respective 500 heats, and J.P. Kepka (also starting from lane 5) second in his. Canadians Jeffrey Scholten, Eric Bedard and Jonathan Guilmette all won their respective heats.

Apolo won his quarterfinal, with Ahn Hyun-soo (KOR) 2nd, followed by Eric Bedard. (FinishLynx photo here)Unfortunately, luck changed for the rest of the American men, as J.P. was DQ'ed (resulting in the advance of Guilmette) and Rusty finish 3rd behind Song Suk-woo (KOR) and Li Jiajun (CHN). Check out the wild FinishLynx photo from J.P.'s quarterfinal of Guilmette splayed out on all fours.

Things really got interesting in the semifinals. The deck was loaded for semi #1, with Jonathan Guilmette, Apolo (again starting from lane 5), and Takafumi Nishitani (JPN) finishing in that order, while Ahn and Li were both eliminated after being DQ'ed. Five skaters competed in the final, with a lot of jockeying for position, as usual. Apolo was in second briefly but did not hold on and finish fourth in a very tight race behind Song, former 500 world record-holder Scholten, and Nishitani. Guilmette was 5th. Check out the close finish.

Said USS: "Ohno, skating in third position, swung wide to set up a pass but... Nishitani was quick on his feet and took control of the third spot forcing Ohno into fourth for the remainder of the race. 'Ohno could have stayed where he was, skated a defensive track and finished with a bronze easily,' said U.S. Coach Scott Koons. 'But he took the chance and went for the gold and got caught this time. I'd much rather see him make a move for the gold than be satisfied with bronze.' "

Relays
In their relay semifinal, the U.S. men traded leads with Canada back and forth a few times till with ~20 laps to go, the U.S. was overtaken by Japan and fell into third. USA and Japan then traded 2nd and 3rd several times until three laps to go, when the Americans clinched second place behind Canada. USS said: "Twice, Japan opened up a gap on the U.S., and twice Smith reeled them back. The first time he caught Nishitani and the second time he gave Ohno a great push to put the U.S. in second position with two laps to go. Ohno took three crossovers going into the corner and then put the hammer down to qualify the American team in a time of 6:54.427." The American men thus advance to the relay final for the first time this season.

The U.S. ladies finished third in their relay semifinal and won't advance to tomorrow's final.

See also Day 2 press release (via US Speedskating)
Full results are available at Cyberscoreboard

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NOTE: Live Cyberscoreboard coverage begins tomorrow at 11:50AM local time in Beijing (10:50PM ET/09:50PM CT/08:50PM MT/07:50PM PT).

Here are a couple photos from Day 1 in Beijing.

The 1500 final

Apolo, looking more pirate-like than ever

Images courtesy Chinese Skating Federation, via ISU

World Cup #4 Day 1: 1500 and Relay Heats
(Updated 11:50am ET)
The Koreans (and to a lesser extent, the Chinese) dominated a small field on the opening day in Beijing. In the ladies 1500, Caroline Hallisey was the only American to make it to the semifinals, where she finished 5th. No Canadian ladies made it out of the semifinals either, making for a North America-free 1500 final. The Korean ladies continued their recent domination with a sweep of the medals in the final.

Things were a little more interesting on the men's side, with a few DQ's early on. Unfortunately, Rusty Smith was one of them, after making a late move to finish second in his heat (it was unclear what the infraction was). Things got really interesting when Kim Hyon-kon (KOR) and Li Jiajun (CHN) tied for second in their semifinal, with matching times of 2:16.728, qualifying both for the final. The final was loaded, with three Koreans, two Chinese, Apolo, and Jo Guilmette. Leads changed with every lap as skaters jockeyed for position. Apolo had his work cut out for him, and finished a very respectable third behind Korea's Ahn Hyun-soo and Song Suk-woo.

USA faced Canada, Japan and Poland in their relay heat. Canada's lead was never challenged. The USA men steadily worked their way up from 4th to 3rd, to briefly pass into second. Japan quickly overtook them again for the last third or so of the race until Apolo squeezed ahead in the last lap for the 2nd place finish, qualifying the U.S. for tomorrow's relay semifinals. Complete results at Cyberscoreboard

Update - US Speedskating has additional info in a press release today:
- Ohno advanced to the [1500] final after finishing second in a difficult semi-final. In the finals, he raced from the back of the pack and made a pass near the end to edge Canada's Jonathan Guilmette (2:11.898) for third place.
- [Rusty] Smith was disqualified for charging in his heat.
- Ohno had a bad slip during the relay and nearly hit the boards, but managed to stay on his feet and chase down the Japanese team. He then made a nice pass on Japan's Satoru Terao with half a lap remaining to clinch second place for the U.S. Read full press release

Someone in the geek thread requested I post something 'luscious/sexy/fun.' It's the least I can do! :)

First, a MQT shot, from Yano

Next, another MQT shot, from Ruthie

Oops, somehow in covering 'sexy' and 'luscious,' I almost forgot FUN!

Here's FUN, courtesy of Yano.

HELP! Are there any Javascript geniuses out there who can help me figure out how to make the double-comment popup boxes GO AWAY?! I thought I knew what was causing it but there must be some rogue code somewhere that I missed...

UPDATE: Thanks to Margot for providing the clue and JS Genuis Sonia for spotting the bug. Who knew a stray hard return could create such havoc?

Launch of BrigidFarrell.com

World Cup #4 (Beijing) - Start Times
Here's the schedule for this weekend's World Cup. Beijing is 13 hours ahead of the eastern U.S. and 16 hours ahead of the western U.S.

Day 1:
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Beijing Friday 5 December, 2003 01:30 PM
Washington, DC (ET) Friday 5 December, 2003 12:30 AM
Chicago (CT) Thursday 4 December, 2003 11:30 PM
Calgary (MT) Thursday 4 December, 2003 10:30 PM
Los Angeles (PT) Thursday 4 December, 2003 09:30 PM
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Day 2:
-----------------------------------------------------
Beijing Saturday 6 December, 2003 01:30 PM
Washington, DC (ET) Saturday 6 December, 2003 12:30 AM
Chicago (CT) Friday 5 December, 2003 11:30 PM
Calgary (MT) Friday 5 December, 2003 10:30 PM
Los Angeles (PT) Friday 5 December, 2003 09:30 PM
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Day 3:
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Beijing Sunday 7 December, 2003 11:50 AM
Washington, DC (ET) Saturday 6 December, 2003 10:50 PM
Chicago (CT) Saturday 6 December, 2003 09:50 PM
Calgary (MT) Saturday 6 December, 2003 08:50 PM
Los Angeles (PT) Saturday 6 December, 2003 07:50 PM
-----------------------------------------------------

Resources
- Live Cyberscoreboard
- Cyberscoreboard
- USShortTrackFans.com online chat

Jerry Search CODA Galleries
Jerry Search's awesome photo galleries from October's CODA competition in Calgary are now available. Here's a small selection for your viewing pleasure! See Jerry's complete galleries.

(Lots more like this one!)

See Jerry's complete galleries.

New Korean Editorial
There's another editorial in the Korean press speaking against the whole anti-Apolo thing over there:
[Seoul Searcher]Let bygones be bygones (via Korea Herald)

Calgary Photo Gallery 1: Another photo gallery is ready (finally) - this one is from Day 1 of the Calgary World Cup. Check it out!

The next three pics are all from the Calgary gallery.

1500 Semifinal: Mathieu Deboisset (FRA), Apolo Ohno (USA) and Nicola Franceschina (ITA)

The start of the 1500 semifinal: Suk-Woo Song (KOR), Apolo Anton Ohno (USA), Yoshiharu Arino (JPN), Baoku Sui (CHN)

Apolo listens to Yuki from the heat box

Korean World Cup, Day 3
Well, the Korean ladies cleaned up yesterday, sweeping the medals in the 1000 and 3000 and winning the relay. The Canadian ladies unaccountably finished last.

As we know, the Canadian men were already out of the relay final, but the Korean men continued not to dominate yesterday on their home ice. Best news of the day (IMO): Italian men's silver medal in the relay, which was won by the Chinese men. Check out the FinishLynx photo for some happy skaters.
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(On edit) Radio-Canada on 'The Korean Armada' of three skaters facing Amelie Goulet-Nadon in her 1000 final:

" The 20 year old [Amelie Goulet-Nadon] was shut out in the [1000m] final by a trio of Korean skaters working in tight collaboration. 'It's difficult when there are two Koreans in a race, but with three, they are completely impossible to pass.'

"Goulet-Nadon explained that they 'tighten' their elbows and that you'd have to fly over them in order to pass them. 'I'm happy with my race. Under the circumstances, I did the best I could,' [said Amelie.] "
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Coverage from the Korean press:
Korea Times: Choi Eun-kyung Stands Out at Short-Track Worlds
Donga.com: Choi Eun-kyung Wins Three Short Track Races