Canadian Trials #3, Day 3 - 1000m

After the 1000m today, the remaining places on Canada's national team are all but locked up. Spots 6-8 for the men will almost certainly go to Francois-Louis Tremblay, Eric Bédard and Daryl Rasmussen. For the ladies, it looks as though Chantale Sévigny, Raphaële Lemieux and Mélanie Gagnon will get the nod.

Assuming I've calculated correctly - and we all know that is a leap of faith, even with a spreadsheet to do it for me - it appears that Jeff Scholten, along with Frédéric Blackburn, Mathieu Giroux and Olivier Jean will take the men's development team spots. Berths on the ladies development team will likely go to a combination of Émilie Nadeau-Benoit, Anne Maltais and Kalyna Roberge, with the final spot a close call between Jo-Anne Maclean and Florence Godon.

Men 1000m A Final - Results
1. Tremblay, 1:28.89
2. Blackburn, 1:29.05
3. Bédard, 1:29.07
4. Joffrey Larocque, 1:29.34

Tremblay led for the last 5 laps or so to win in a close finish. Scholten finished 2nd to Marc-André Monette in a 'sloppy' B final.

Ladies 1000m A Final - Results
1. Gagnon, 1:35.93
2. Godon, 1:35.95
3. Anne Maltais, 1:36.44
4. Mélissa Ieropoli, DNF

Godon led for the last 3 laps or so but Gagnon snuck in at the last corner and nipped her at the finish line. Chantale Sévigny won the B final.

Reminder: World Championships from Sweden on TV

Per US Speedskating, ABC will show the March 19-21 World Short Track Championships from Gothenburg, Sweden, this Saturday, April 3, at 1pm EST. Be sure to check your local listings for the time and channel in your area.

Note: This appears to be a time change from previously announced broadcast schedules.

Canadian Trials #3, Day 2 - 500m

Friday's 500m action in Ottawa saw some of the usual suspects taking the top spots in the men's A final.

Men 500m A Final - Results
1. Eric Bédard 42.74 [1000 pts]
2. Daryl Rasmussen 42.95 [816 pts]
3. Francois-Louis Tremblay 42.99 [666 pts]
4. Nathaniel Therrien 43.37 [543 pts]

Jeff Scholten fell in his 500m semi and won the men's B final.

Ladies 500m A Final - Results
1. Jo-Anne MacLean 47.40 [1000 pts]
2. Chantale Sévigny 47.43 [816 pts]
3. Mélissa Ieropoli 47.47 [666 pts]
4. Mélanie Gagnon 47.49 [543 pts]

Rusty Smith Post Injury Interview

Now that Rusty is in California on a break and for doctor visits, he had some time to answer some questions about his injury and how he's been coping with the recovery process.

"It’s hard...It’s really hard. The only reason I think it’s OK right now is because I realize that I still have my eyesight, and that I am alive and it could be a lot worse. But it’s hard. I didn’t want to go outside for a long time, I was really worried about seeing people, I wanted to stay in Colorado because that way I wouldn’t have to see anybody. It’s just upsetting to know that you may never look the way you did. When you think about things in life, you don’t think about changing your appearance. You think about getting a family, kids, things like that. You don’t think about not looking the way you did."

Rusty also discusses the dangerous conditions stemming from the lapses with the arena and the ice that led to so many severe injuries at the World Championships. Visit Rusty's site to read his interview.

Canadian Trials #3, Day 1 - 1500m

Short track season isn't over just yet after all. Starting today, the Canadians have the final trials in their rigorous national team selection process. Our buddy Jameson Gipp is reporting from Ottawa.

The top 5 spots on the national team were locked up after Trials #2 in January. Those are the skaters who represented Canada last month at the World Teams and World Championships, and they aren't competing this weekend.

At stake in this final trials are positions 6-8 on the Canadian national team. In addition, the skaters ranked 9-12 after this weekend clinch spots on the development team. Some of those competing are familiar to U.S. fans, and others will no doubt earn places on the national team in years to come. Canada's fantastic depth in short track ensures that you will see significant reshuffling of the national team from season to season, which makes this series of trials extremely competitive!

Here are results from today's 1500m finals:

Men A Final - Results
1. Frédéric Blackburn 2:18.81 [1000 pts]
2. Francois-Louis Tremblay 2:19.02 [ 816 pts]
3. Marc-Andre Monette 2:19.03 [666 pts]
4. Mathieu Giroux 2:19.07 [543 pts]
5. Jeffrey Scholten 2:19.19 [443 pts]
6. Eric Bedard DQ [362 pts]

The finish in this race was a little wild. Mathieu Giroux was leading when Frédéric Blackburn passed him on the last straight. Eric Bedard attempted to follow suit but instead bumped Giroux around quite a bit and was DQ'ed for impeding. Unlike U.S. and ISU events, Bedard still receives 6th place points, despite his DQ.

Ladies A Final - Results
1. Chantale Sévigny 2:31.51 [1000 pts]
2. Kalyna Roberge 2:32.36 [816 pts]
3. Anne Maltais 2:32.46 [666 pts]
4. Mélanie Gagnon 2:32.52 [543 pts]
5. Florence Godon 2:32.55 [443 pts]
6. Raphaële Lemieux 2:32.61 [362 pts]

Chantale Sévigny broke away from the pack with about 4 laps to go, opening up a big gap, and won her race unchallenged. Sevigny, Mélanie Gagnon and Raphaële Lemieux all represented Canada at World Cup #6 in Bormio. Interesting note about Sevigny is that she is deaf since birth, and has learned to compensate in various ways. For example, she relies on seeing smoke from the starter's pistol to tell her when the race has begun and visual signals from her coach during races.

Here are a couple new shots from Apolo's 1500m quarter final in Sweden

Volodymyr Hryhoryev (UKR), Guillaume Mathieu (FRA), Takafumi Nishitani (JPN), Jiajun Li (CHN), AAO (USA)

Jonathan Guilmette speaks out

First, the outstanding news: Jo came home to Canada today! It's great to hear that he's up and about and getting the treatment he deserves, and we wish him all the best.

Jonathan has posted a new journal entry on his web site detailing exactly how and why his crash occurred. He leaves no doubt as to what happened. In addition, Jo had this to say:

"In my [1000m] semi, Apolo should not have been DQ'd on Seung Jae Lee, it should have been the opposite. I am sick and tired of the Koreans' dirty skating. Every time there is somebody that can beat them, they start to team skate and block that skater or try to make him get DQ'd by acting. There are so many times that they should have won an Oscar. I cannot believe that they are proud to win a World Championship like this. No honor at all. I have no more respect for Korean skaters, now. And I am not afraid to say it out loud. I will always respect skaters who skate fairly, but that's not their case." Read Jo's journal entry.

Thank you, Jonathan, for having the courage to tell it like it is! We support you all the way.

Marquette Video Clip

Here's a little short track fix, courtesy of Yano, Maggie and Sonia!

Watch Apolo's 500m heat from Marquette

World Cup Medals Stats

An interesting resource has come our way in the form of a file that compiles season-by-season (1998-2004) and all-time World Cup medals results. The data is compiled in several ways, showing historical medal counts by distance, individual, sex and country. It illustrates which countries and skaters are strongest over specific distances, and how relative strengths have changed (or not) over time.

Look how dominant, for example, Fabio Carta was a few years ago -- #3 in the medal counts in '98-'99. That same year, the highest-ranked Canadian man was Marc Gagnon, tied for 10th overall!

What really jumps out is how elite the club of medalists really is. Few countries and even fewer skaters, relatively speaking, ever reach the podium.

As of this season, Apolo is ranked #3 in terms of World Cup medals won by a man, with 45 medals to date. He lags only short track legends Jiajun Li and Kim Dong-sung. And for unparalleled dominance, check out the record of Yang Yang A -- the overall individual medal leader with 61 career World Cup medals -- 47 of which were golds!

All-time total World Cup medals by individuals
1. Yang Yang A: 61 total medals (47 gold, 9 silver, 5 bronze)
2. Evgenia Radanova: 57 total (19 gold, 19 silver, 19 bronze)
3. Jiajun Li: 56 total (29 gold, 17 silver, 10 bronze)
4. Dong-Sung Kim: 50 total (27 gold, 15 silver, 8 bronze)
5. Apolo Anton Ohno: 45 total (25 gold, 9 silver, 11 bronze)

Download World Cup medals stats (requires MS Excel)

Thanks to Jameson Gipp for this data!

I'm slowly processing my Sweden pictures. Here's a series from the U.S. team practice on Wednesday, March 17.

Apolo shows Shani videotape during a break in practice

It kinda looks like Apolo is clutching Rusty's elbow.