'Beijing report my way' continued | Ohno Zone Home

by Junko

Day 2: Min Tian Jian

In the elevator

The next day was also sunny and cool. I saw a Japanese coach I had never spoken with before in the elevator before breakfast. After we exchanged cordial "Good morning" in Japanese with a light bow, the coach started talking to me.

Coach: "I am sorry for yesterday..."

Vacation-brained me before coffee: "???...."

Coach: "...about Apolo... that was not his fault."

Me (with jumping up): "Oh!… right!.. it wasn't! Turcotte's blade contacted Apolo's blade and it caused the fall!"

Coach: (nodding) "Yes, it was a referee's wrong call. Good luck for today."

Me: "Thank you!" (still jumping)

I mean it came out from the pro and not from an ice-wise smart a**! And a Chinese official who was with the coach told me in fluent Japanese, "Good luck today." Such athleticism! Nice going gentlemen! You made my day in a real sense!

The door

The entrance doors were opened very late on Saturday. When we finally came in, the heats were almost over. As Sonia saved our seats in the very front row, all the athletes who walked by downstairs were a reaching and literally touchable distance. Kimo casually reached out to many people from the stand including Stephen Lee of Australia, his coach, Jonathan Guilmette of Canada, Fabio Carta of Italy, all the members of Team USA, Andy Gabel, Yang Yang S, some Chinese skaters and many others.

I reached out and touched, No, just talked with Robillard of Canada and Takehiro Kodera of Japan. Kodera twisted his ankle at Thursday practice. He was not going to skate even the relay. Kimo wanted me to ask Kodera if he could skate in Kodera's position. After the translation, Kodera looked at Kimo, smiled, shook his head quickly and said, "No." Kimo always had a way with people. And we got the best seats in the house.

500m

To watch 500m race is always a stomach aching, nerve shaking fun. It is one of my favorite competitions. The skaters have to dash out and keep on dashing until the first curve, then a gauche. It's fun to watch and hard to compete, I would imagine. You certainly cannot stay in the back of the pack because the race ends quickly. J.P. Kepka skated so well. He was confident, strong and fast. When I saw the members of the men's final, Francois-Louis Tremblay, Charles Hamelin, J.P., Takafumi Nishitani and Hyun-soo Ahn, I couldn't make up my mind who I wanted to cheer. But after all, cheering came out rather naturally, "GO, J.P.!" "NOW!" "Speed up!" We were all very happy for J.P. that day.

Day 3: Zai Jian Beijing

Breakfast

The breakfast buffet of Xiyuan Hotel was of rich variety. They had Chinese fried noodle, dumplings, salads and Japanese soup noodle to omelets, sausages, French toasts and so on with lots of coffee. I missed breakfast on the third day for some reason. Hmmm...

Seats

We didn't like to miss the heats as the day before. Kimo kindly talked to Yang Yang S to let us enter from the back door where the box office/security and athletes entrance was. Since Mr. Baver, Allison's dad saved us seats in the front row, we were again sitting in the area from where we could reach out and touch someone. Oh, when I referred to "we" it was Tiggie, Kimo, Jan and me. Jennifer G, Ruthie and Anna preferred the back rows.

Winning

It was the most memorable day of the World Championships of Beijing. USA won! Apolo won an amazing 2nd place overall. It was awesome to eyewitness Apolo coming out like a shooting star from the pack at 3000m final! Perfect! Ahn took a glance at Apolo through his left shoulder as Apolo passing him but did not try the chasing game.

In the relay, Jordan Malone fell. He must have had some problem with his skates because I saw Derrick Campbell working on his shoe before the relay. Immediately after Jordan fell, Apolo sent Alex Izykowski to touch Jordan's hand. As soon as Jordan touched Alex, Alex skated back to Apolo and pushed him out. Nice team work! Everybody in the team was alert and attentive all through the relay. It was wonderful to see and know the team spirits working among and through the skaters.

After podium

Alanna Kraus, Amanda Overland, Tania Vicent and Chantale Sevigny of Canada stopped by our seats to thank us as they were coming back from the podium. Amanda said, "Thank you for your support. It means a lot to us." Sweet! We felt we were rather North Americans than U.S. and Canada. They must have seen or heard our cheers.

Ahn was surrounded by nearly 30 female fans in front of our seats. He looked more puzzled than happy in the crowd. Those fans were with him asking him autographs and taking pictures until a security guard called out something in Chinese. Apolo was also with many fans near the podium and made a getaway eventually. He waved at Jan and Kimo across the rink as he was leaving. How loyal!

Tremblay was signing and taking pictures too near the podium. I joined the crowd to congratulate him very briefly. Tremblay's eyes arrest you but I don't say anything here. Satoru Terao of Japan tapped my knee lightly while I was still sitting and said, "This time you came far…" I just answered as, "Yes, I did. And by the way, you've got your groove back." Terao replied, "Yes" with a big smile. Skaters knew when they skated well.

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