2004 Junior World Championships, Day 2

No American skaters made it to the 500m finals yesterday in Beijing. Coming closest was Hyo-jung Kim, who made it as far as the semis, where she finished third behind eventual gold and silver medallists Anouk Leblanc-Boucher (CAN) and Katerina Novotna (CZE). Jade Wheeler and Kristen Biondo were both eliminated in their respective heats.

Nice to see a Canadian at the top of the podium:

Ladies 500m final
1 LEBLANC-BOUCHER, Anouk (CAN) 45.689 34 pts
2 NOVOTNA, Katerina (CZE) 45.748 21 pts
3 KANG, Yun-Mi (KOR) 45.762 13 pts
4 ROBERGE, Kalyna (CAN) 45.864 8 pts

On the men's side, Nick Frank was eliminated in the preliminary round. Ryan Bedford and Anthony Lobello didn't advanced past their heats. The 500m final once again saw the defending champion reach the top of the podium:

Men's 500m final
1 LEE, Ho-Suk (KOR) 42.542 34 pts
2 ELEY, Jon (GBR) 42.770 21 pts
3 YOSHIZAWA, Jumpei (JPN) 42.924 13 pts
4 FUJIMOTO, Takahiro (JPN) 43.112 8 pts

Unfortunately, both US relay teams were eliminated in yesterday's semifinals. Both suffered falls, resulting in the ladies getting DQ'ed and the US men finishing last in their heat. Perhaps more surprisingly, the Canadian relay teams are also out of the final, after the men finished last in their heat (a very tough field against Korea, China and Japan) and the Canadian ladies finished out of qualifying position in theirs.

+ More information available from US Speedskating:
Kim Places 5th in 500-Meters at World Junior Short Track Championships
+ Complete results available at Cyberscoreboard
+ CBC Sports: Canadian captures gold at short-track world juniors

Thanks to Yano for making this animation from Apolo's press conference photos!

2004 Junior World Championships, Day 1
The US ladies started strong, with all three advancing to the quarterfinals in the 1500. Unfortunately, Kristen Biondo wound up in a very tough quarterfinal, where she finished last, and Jade Wheeler just missed qualifying for the semis when she placed 4th in her quarterfinal. Korean-American sensation and U.S. Jr. Champion Hyo-Jung Kim easily qualified for the 1500 final. In the race's final laps she passed from 5th to first and then was in turn passed in the final lap, ultimately finishing 5th.

Ladies 1500m final:
1 JUNG, Eun-Ju (KOR) 2:36.943 34 pts
2 KANG, Yun-Mi (KOR) 2:37.004 21 pts
3 SU, Linlin (CHN) 2:37.232 13 pts
4 BORODULINA, Tatiana (RUS) 2:37.441 8 pts
5 KIM, Hio-Jung (USA) 2:37.559 5 pts
6 ZHU, Mile (CHN) 2:38.148 3 pts

Two of three US men didn't advance past their opening heats, with Nicholas Frank finishing 4th in his heat and Ryan Bedford 6th in his. (According to the USS press release, Ryan was DQ'd for charging.) Anthony Lobello made it to the quarterfinals, where the men's run came to an end as he finished last in his heat.

The men's 1500s were full of DQ's, including all the Canadian men. No Canadians skated in either final (men or ladies). The 1500 final was won by last year's Junior World Champion, Korea's Lee.

Men 1500m final:
1 LEE, Ho-Suk (KOR) 2:17.479 34 pts
2 KWON, Ki-Deok (KOR) 2:18.065 21 pts
3 ELEY, Jon (GBR) 2:18.864 13 pts
4 SUI, Baoku (CHN) 2:18.915 8 pts
5 HERRMANN, Paul (GER) 2:19.159 5 pts
6 CUI, Liang (CHN) 2:19.232 3 pts
7 HU, Ze (CHN) 2:20.920 2 pts

Men and ladies both skate a 2000m relay at Jr Worlds, in teams of three. The US men and ladies both finished second in their heats, qualifying them to skate in tonight's relay semifinals. The ladies go up against China, Italy and Germany, while the men face Italy, France and Hungary.

+ More information available from US Speedskating:
Kim 5th in 1500-Meters at World Junior Short Track Championships; Both U.S. Relay Teams Advance
+ Complete results available at Cyberscoreboard

Video Clips

Some new video clips starring Apolo are available. Download them here.

Reminder: Chat With Derek Gray Tonight!
Derek Gray is doing a chat this coming Sunday, January 11, at 7pm MT (which is 9pm ET, 8pm CT, and 6pm PT). For more info, visit DerekGray.com.

The chat will take place at http://groups.msn.com/UssDerekGray. You'll need to join the group to participate in the chat.

Congratulations, Apolo!

Beijing World Cup Footage
Sonia discovered some video footage online from World Cup #4 in Beijing. A couple caveats: it's very low image quality, and it's all in Chinese. (I could understand 2 words throughout the clip: 'Li Jiajun'!)

Here's the URL for the clip (opens Real Player):
rtsp://real.cctv.com.cn/sports/column/56K/562081216tyzx_1.rm

Highlights:
At 1m 30secs scenes from 1500m Final
At 2m 42secs scenes from 500m Final
At 3m 05secs scenes from Relay Final