Women
Total Points *UNOFFICIAL*
Men Total
Points *UNOFFICIAL*
Update 9/16/2009
There
seems to be a lot of emails asking about why the distance classification was
used instead of the overall classification for the selection process in regards
to the
Let
me be very clear about this: The
distance classification has more importance because when it comes to the
Olympics, you don’t win a medal for your overall classification.
Just
because you win more events, does not mean you get a medal for top three
overall. There is no top three for
overall classification. It’s GOLD, SILVER,
or BRONZE in the 1500m, 1000m, 500m, and the relay. If there actually was an overall
classification, Ahn Hyun-Soo
and Jin Sun-Yu of South Korea would have gotten a fourth gold medal from Torino
2006 hands down. The format for the
Olympics is entirely different.
Another
thing I want to clarify is that the team selected at US Trials was only selected
to go to the World Cups. They are NOT
the final team going to the Olympics. It’s
not winning a spot at Trials and BAM onto the Olympic team. It doesn’t work that way. The skaters selected are only nominated to
skate the World Cups. Just as I
explained during my coverage of the Canadian Trials, the skaters being sent
will have to try to qualify for their individual spots in
Each
country can earn a MAXIMUM of three skaters for individual distances. There is NO minimum. From what I can understand, if let’s say the
Men
500m
–
1000m
– Apolo Ohno, Travis Jayner, JR Celski
1500m
– Apolo Ohno, JR
Women
500m
– Alyson Dudek, Katherine Reutter, Lana Gehring
1000m
– Katherine Reutter, Kimberly Derrick, Allison Baver
1500m
– Katherine Reutter, Allison Baver, Kimberly Derrick
This
is only if the
Men
500m
– Apolo Ohno
1000m
– Apolo Ohno
1500m
– Apolo Ohno
Based
on this scenario, Apolo Ohno
is the only skater that gets to skate. Why? He gets to skate because he won the distance
classification for all three distances. This
is why distance classification is more important for US Trials selection. Therefore, he gets priority to skate above any
other male skater. The rest of the guys
don’t get to skate because
Women
500m
– Alyson Dudek
1000m
– Katherine Reutter
1500m
– Katherine Reutter
For
the women, only Alyson and Katherine get the skate. Alyson won the 500m overall, and Katherine
won the 1000m + 1500m overall. Derrick, Baver, and Gehring would not
skate at all.
In
essence, the final Olympic team, based on this scenario, would only be Ohno, Dudek, and Reutter for
individual distances. Oh and don’t
forget the
I
hope this helps people understand the process.
After World Cups 3 and 4, we will know what spots the
Update 9/13/2009
Before
heading out to the airport, I wanted
to visit JR at the hospital. When I
showed up, JR wanted to immediately see his crash and I showed him. The injury isn’t that bad as we thought. He has a cut six inches long and two inches
deep. He just cut some muscle tissue and
is expected to make a full recovery. The
doctor said he should be back on the ice within a month. He’s definitely going to miss the World Cups
in
I
also saw Maria at the airport and she seems to be fine. CAT scan came out negative and she did cut
her tongue. I’m just glad everyone was
ok.
I
also want to give a shout out to Walter Rusk for his quick thinking and fast
reaction to assisting JR when he cut himself during his crash. There was so much blood on the ice and Walter
used his shirt to put on pressure to stop the bleeding.
US Team heading to the World Cups
Men:
Apolo Ohno, JR
Women:
Katherine Reutter, Alyson Dudek, Kimberly Derrick,
Allison Baver, Lana Gehring*
*because
JR Celski is currently injured and we can still send
six skaters, Jeff Simon and Anthony Lobello will be
skating with the men and Jessica Smith with be the sixth skater for the women
Update 9/13/2009 2:22AM EST
Ok.
A lot of people have been asking questions as to how Simon Cho came in sixth
overall and still be on the team when Jeff Simon came in fifth overall. I’m
going to explain it to you right now.
Now,
there is a distance classification (500m, 1000m, 1500m) and an overall
classification. You get a spot on the team if you win a distance
classification. You also get a spot if you win overall
classification. If the same person wins all three distance
classifications and is also the overall winner, then you start moving to second
place positions, and then third place positions until you fill the team.
Now onto the questions for the men’s side:
Who
won the 500m overall? Apolo Ohno.
Who
won the 1000m overall? Apolo Ohno.
Who
won the 1500m overall? Apolo Ohno.
Who
is the overall winner? Apolo Ohno.
So
with one spot filled, we now move towards the second place points overall.
Who
won second overall in the 1500m? JR Celski, so that’s
spot #2.
Who
won second overall in the 1000m? Travis Jayner,
that’s spot #3.
Who
won second overall in the 500m? Jordan Malone, that’s spot #4.
Now
we have four spots filled. We move towards third place points overall.
Who
won third overall in the 1500m? Jordan Malone. He’s already on the team.
Who
won third overall in the 1000m? JR Celski. He’s
also already on the team.
Who
won third overall in the 500m? Simon Cho. Here is your 5th
spot.
The
overall classification points are just used as a tie-breaker. It is NOT
used to select team members. YES, I know it’s confusing but this is what
I know and how it was explained to me. This is why Jeff Simon is not on
the team.
Same thing with the women here.
Who
won the 1500m overall? Katherine Reutter.
Who
won the 1000m overall? Katherine Reutter.
Who
won the 500m overall? Alyson Dudek. So
that’s spot two.
Who
won second overall in the 1500m? Allison Baver.
That’s spot three.
Who
won second overall in the 1000m? Kimberly Derrick. That’s spot four.
Who
won second overall in the 500m? Katherine Reutter. No change in spots.
Who
won third overall in the 1500m? Kimberly Derrick. No change in
spots.
Who
won third overall in the 1000m? Allison Baver.
No change in spots.
Who
won third overall in the 500m? Lana Gehring.
That’s spot five.
You
can click on the overall points on top to double check me if you want.
I’ll update my blog later during the day for today’s events. I’m dead tired
and still need to pack.
Update 9/12/2009 6:05pm
Based
on total points so far, Apolo Ohno,
JR Celski, Katherine Reutter and Alyson Dudek have their spots pretty much locked in to head to the
World Cups. The big competition now is between Malone, Jayner, Cho and Jeff Simon for the men, and Derrick, Gehring, Baver, and Jessica Smith
for the women. I don’t think the other skaters will make a dent on the
overall scores.
I
think Alyson Dudek has her 500m distance
classification set. The only contenders are Reutter, Derrick and Gehring. Dudek needs to
only finish 4th between those women and she would win it for the
500m. For the men in the 500m, it’s open between Ohno, Celski, Malone and
Cho.
I’m
not to sure about the 1000m + 1500m distance classification since they are
count towards each other. We will soon find out at the end of the day.
Just
watch for my tweets.
Update 9/12/2009
Apolo maybe 27 years old, but he still has what it
takes to take out the young skaters! Katherine Reutter also made it look
too easy! With the conclusion of the 1000m (1) and 1500m (2), Apolo Ohno and Katherine Reutter
have taken gold in both distances!
In
the 1000m (1), Ohno came in 1st, then Celski, Jeff Simon, Simon Cho, and Robert Lawrence.
Ryan Bedford was disqualified for impeding against Jeff Simon in the last lap,
and Jordan Malone was disqualified for cross-tracking against
For
the Women’s 1000m (1), Katherine Reutter came in first, followed by Dudek, Baver, and Gehring. Kimberly Derrick was disqualified for
impeding against Dudek, even though I felt the inside
pass was good. In the Women’s 1500m (2), once again Katherine Reutter
came in 1st, followed by Baver, Derrick, Dudek, Smith, and Gehring.
Details of the races as follows:
Men’s
1000m Heat 2 – Eddy Alvarez was disqualified for impeding against Lobello by trying to make an inside pass. On the
straightaway are the start of the last lap, Jayner’s
left skate collided with Eddy’s right skate to cause him to fall.
Men’s
1000m Semi 3 –
Men’s
1000m Final D – Now I don’t know if he did this on purpose, but Robert Lawrence
toed into the ice right after the gun on his second step and went Superman for
a little bit. He was able to catch up later.
Men’s
1000m Final C – Simon Cho was a bit unstable when he tried to push on his right
during a crossover to make a pass on lap 4 causing him to fall on the straightaway, hit the pads and spin around trying to get
back up.
Men’s
1000m Final A – There was a lot of positioning among the skaters. JR Celski was leading the race up until lap 4 when Ohno went for the inside. Ohno
definitely kept on looking behind to see what was going on. He definitely
kept on deep tracking JR Celski and putting his hand
down earlier during his pivots. At the end of lap 3, you can see Jordan
Malone building a TON of speed because he started picking up on Ohno’s deep tracking.
Women’s
1000m Semi 3 – On the last lap, Jessica Smith tried to go on the outside to
pass Alyson Dudek. As they entered the corner, Dudek slips with her right skate, falls and takes out
Jessica Smith with her. Jessica Smith was DQ’d
for impeding for some reason.
Women’s
1000m Final D – Tamara Frederick made a bad inside pass on the last lap and
took out Erin Bartlett. It was such a bad pass.
Men’s
1500m Semi 1 – Eddy Alvarez was DQ’d for impeding
against Jeff Simon causing Simon to fall. He was advanced. On the
last corner, Lobello made a desperate attempt to go
on the inside to pass Alvarez only to fall, spin, and hit the pads backwards
feet first.
Men’s
1500m Semi 2 – Chris Creveling impeded Charles Ryan Leveille to cause him to fall.
Today
will be the last day of racing. I’ll update this page later on today to
discuss points.
Update 9/10/2009
Day
2 of racing was super crazy!
In
the Men’s 1500m Final A, JR Celski was an unstoppable
force. He had such a large gap that he just glided pass the finish line
in celebration while Ohno and Malone fought for that
second spot. Ohno ended up edging Malone at the
line. In the Women’s 1500m Final A, Reutter was able to hold off the rest
of the pack to clinch the win followed by Baver and
Derrick.
In
the Men’s 500m Final A, Simon Cho came in for the win for 1st
followed by Ohno and Jeff Simon for third. JR Celski was disqualified for impeding. In the Women’s
500m Final A, Alyson Dudek led the entire way
followed by Lana Gehring and Kimberly Derrick.
Now,
let’s get into the details of the races.
Nothing
special in Men’s 1500m Semi 1 and 2. In Semi #3, Lobello
made an inside pass on
In
the Men’s 1500m Final A, there was a lot of passing between the skaters.
At the start of the last lap, JR Celski had a
commanding lead with Jordan Malone and Apolo Ohno trailing behind. Seriously though, JR Celski was hauling ASS. I think Ohno
made his move too late by waiting too long. JR was already in first with
5 laps to go and he just held it there. He was still able to get Jordan
Malone at the line for second.
For
the Women’s 1500m Final A, Alyson Dudek leaned back
and fell at the end of lap seven. Then Reutter, Baver,
Smith and Derrick just took off with Lana Gehring
trailing in the back. At the last lap, Smith had her third placed locked
in until Derrick went into the corner wide and took Smith on the inside for
third place. Reutter couldn’t be touched for first.
For
the 500m races, it was drama drama drama.
For
the women’s A Final, the race was restarted after Reutter fell after three to
four steps. Based on the video I took, it didn’t look like she had made
contact with Lana Gehring but I guess the ref felt
otherwise. With the race restarted, Alyson Dudek
just sprinted off the line and simply was not challenged. She clearly is
In
the men’s C final, Jordan Malone toed in on his third step. After 3 laps,
Chris Creveling made an inside pass on Robert
Lawrence catching him off guard. Then as
In
the B Final, Travis Jayner took off from the line
followed by Bedford and Leveille. I swear
For
the Men’s Final A in the 500m, it was ALL JEFF SIMON. He gunned for the
apex with Cho, Ohno and Celski
behind. After about 2 laps, Simon Cho went into the corner deep and Ohno went in SUPER tight to take the second position away
from Cho. Cho CLEARLY did not see this coming and was totally
surprised. On the last lap with Jeff Simon still leading, JR Celski had so much speed that he attempted to make an
inside pass on both Cho and Ohno. He was able
to make the pass on Cho but impeded against Ohno.
That caused a chain reaction causing Ohno to push
Jeff’s hip, which in turn caused Jeff to fall. Jeff was SO CLOSE.
That was HIS RACE and screwed. He was GOING TO WIN IT. As Jeff
fell, Ohno threw his hands up in the air as if he was
asking what was going on. JR was close behind him. BUT Simon Cho
exited the last corner SUPER tight and snatched first place! It was an
utter SHOCK. There was no whistle and there was no gun. So when Simon
crossed the line, he had won the 500m Final with Ohno
in second and Jeff third. JR was DQ’d for
impeding. The crowd went wild and Cho definitely was happy.
*UPDATE*
I
forgot to add this but I want to give another shout out to Robert
Lawrence! In the men’s 500m Heat 4, Jordan Malone fell as he exited the
corner. The fall caused
Today
is rest day and I had a chance to get on the ice with some of the
skaters. A lot of them were reviewing my video to see what they needed to
correct. The 1000m and second 1500m are tomorrow. At the end of
tomorrow, we will know first hand which skater will be on the team to be sent
to the World Cups to qualify for Olympics.
Update 9/9/2009
First
day of competition has finished. Skaters had to skate a nine lap time
trial to determine top 16 positions and then a four lap time trial to determine
seeding and heat placements.
The
biggest accomplishment of the day was JR Celski’s
nine lap time trial! He posted a 1:23:981! The current World Record
in the 1000m is held by Charles Hamelin of
Katherine
Reutter came in at 1:30:306 and was able to hold off Kimberly Derrick at
1:31:344. Alyson Dudek came in third at
1:31:560.
Top
three winners of the 9 lap time trials are:
Men:
JR Celski 1:23:981, Apolo Ohno 1:24:500, Jordan Malone 1:25:259
Women:
Katherine Reutter 1:30:306, Kimberly Derrick 1:31:344, Alyson Dudek 1:31:560
Interesting tidbit. Katherine Reutter came in 17th
place at the 2006 Trials. Then she got #1 spot in the 9 lappers
yesterday. Four years well spent I must say.
In
the men’s 4 lap time trial, things heated up even more. Jordan Malone was
flying through his laps and came in at 37.124. JR Celski
came in a CLOSE second at 37.127. We’re talking the difference of 0.003
seconds! Both Jordan and JR are not normally sprinters either. They
both were super surprised at their times. Anthony Lobello
came in third at 37.179.
In
the women’s 4 lap time trial, Alyson Dudek showcased
her talent as being the young sprinter she is at 39.798, followed by Kimberly
Derrick at 40.270 and Katherine Reutter at 40.312.
So
far in the points standings, JR Celski
leads the way with 1800 points followed by Jordan Malone at 1640, and Ohno in third with 1312.
Katherine
Reutter and Alyson Dudek are both tied at 1640 each
with Kimberly Derrick at 1600 and Lana Gehring at
1024. Congratulations to all the skaters that made the cut off. Still
PLENTY of racing going on today for the 1500m (1) and 500m (1).
Some
side comments about the time trials yesterday:
During
the event, there were some hiccups for some skaters. Zach Fuller fell
during his time trial and for some reason Walter Rusk I guess got confused
during the finish. Both were allowed to reskate their time trials, but did not affect the
overall top 16 standings for the men.
I
just have to give a shout out to Robert Lawrence. He fell on the start of
his time trial after his THIRD step by toeing in. He was still able to do
a 1:27:926 and make top 16! MAD PROPS.
During
Jeff Simon’s 4 lap time trial, for some reason Jeff
stopped skating and complained that someone had blown a whistle. I had
talked other skaters and they ALSO confirmed hearing of this whistle. He
abruptly stopped skating while Joey Lindsey continued to power on. After
the time trial, Jeff immediately talked to the head referee to make a request
to do a reskate. AT first, Jeff was
disqualified for skating off track, but in the end, he was given the chance to
do his reskate.
There
is one more thing I have to say before I close this blog entry. Please
keep in mind that while I DO tweet LIVE and update results as fast as I can,
there will be some errors given the speed at which I’m working. So I’ll
make this VERY CLEAR right now: ALL results that I post are UNOFFICIAL.
Update 9/8/2009
Women’s
4 lap time trial Unofficial
Men’s
4 lap time trial Unofficial
Women’s
9 Lap Time Trial Unofficial
Men’s
9 Lap Time Trial Unofficial
Official
9 lap times from GoldRushSkate.com
Update 9/7/2009
Time
Trial draws are up for tomorrow!
9/7/2009
Hello
all. It’s that time again. I’m currently in
Here
in the
From
December 2007 until the Desert Classic race two weeks ago, all times during
officially sanctioned US Speedskating meets were
eligible to be used for US Trials entry. There are no invites, no special
exceptions, NOTHING. ALL skaters are required to meet their cut of
times.
Tomorrow,
all skaters will be skating a nine lap time trial. It’s basically going
to be a pair of skaters trying to skate their fastest nine laps. The
purpose of the time trials is to essentially weed out the weak skaters.
Pardon my language, but this is reality. The time trials will separate
the men from the boys or the women from the girls. Only the TOP 16
fastest times from each gender will actually be entered to skate US
Trials.
Please
bear in mind that there is NO MINIMUM time requirement during the time trials
tomorrow. Hell, skaters could skate a five minute nine lap time trial if
they wanted (It would be dumb but yeah it’s the truth). Only top 16
fastest times will be selected. All the other skaters that didn’t make it
will pretty much be done and can basically go home after that.
After
the nine lap time trials, 16 men and 16 women will be selected to actually race
US Trials. From there, eligible skaters skating US Trials will do a four
lap time trial. This four lap time trial will determine the seeding and make
up the draws for the heats for all distances.
Here
in the
If
a skater has a medical bye, that specific skater will only have a bye for a
specific distance if they were a medal contender. At which point, US Speedskating will have a skate-off to determine if the
medical bye skater is good enough to earn their spot for that specific distance.
This means that if the skater wins the skate-off, they can only skate ONE
distance and nothing else. In any case, skaters WILL have to skate to
prove their capabilities even with a medical bye. There is no medical bye
and then BAM straight to the selected team. Make no mistake skaters will have
to earn their spots as I have repeatedly mentioned.
I
will be tweeting LIVE at the event with updated time trial times the SECOND
they are announced at REAL time =). Please make sure you join my twitter for up-to-minute
results. I will also have a PDF with time trial times for each
skater. This PDF will be updated REAL time as well. I will post the
PDF link here on this blog at the top.