World Cup 3

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 

Day 4

The Great Wall of China dominated the women’s 1000m final!  The lone American skater Katherine Reutter tried her best to separate them, but in the end simply could not keep up with the Chinese.  Zhou Yang  won the gold, Wang Meng silver, and Liu Qiuhong bronze.  For the men, the Korean wave had an insane amount of energy to pass Charles Hamelin and Apolo Ohno to win gold and silver.  Charles Hamelin came in third for bronze, with Ohno coming in fourth, and Fauconnet in fifth.  The relays are up next!  Stay tuned and follow my twitter!

 

Day 3

Charles Hamelin is on FIRE!  Canada is definitely bringing the PAIN here at World Cup 3.  Hamelin won gold in the 500m and the 1500m.  Apolo Ohno came in second and Jeff Simon came in third for the 500m.  Francois Louis Tremblay tried to make a move on the inside against Hamelin but slipped as he went into the corner significantly reducing his speed and allow Jeff Simon to coast through for third.  In the 1500m, Hamelin literally beat Sung Si-Bak from South Korea at the LINE (Hamelin came in at 2:21.220; Sung Si-Bak came in at 2:22:221 seconds).  Travis Jayner of the United States came in with a bronze!

 

For the women, Wang Meng was challenged for the first position by Kalyna Roberge.  But Wang Meng came back easily for an inside pass against Roberge grabbing the gold.  Roberge of Canada came in second while Zhao Nannan of China came in third.  The 1500m Final A was interesting to say the least.  Lee Eun-Byul of South Korea made a bad inside pass, literally shoving into Arianna Fontana of Italy AND taking out the favorite Zhou Yang of China.  That’s the risk you take when you skate in the back...you just might get into a pile up.  Katherine Reutter of the United States made an inside pass on Liu Qiuhong of China securing her win while Cho Ha-Ri made a pass on Liu as well.  In the end, it was Reutter in for gold, Cho Ha-Ri for silver, and Qiuhong for bronze. 

 

There will be more racing tomorrow with the 1000m and the relay semis and finals.  It’s going to be an awesome time!

 

Day 2

For Day 2, he skaters skated the 1000m and the relays.  The ice is so bad here at Maurice Richard.  EVERY SINGLE relay heat had some sort of slipping or falling going on.  It was crazy!  The most amazing thing that happened is when Junpei Yoshizawa of Japan toes into the ice then falls and INSTANTLY got back up and started pivoting into the corner!  It’s as if NOTHING fazed him.  It was an exciting heat!

 

 

 

 

In the 1000m, Allison Baver of the US did not make it out of her 1000m heat.  There was some struggling going on with her on passing and she ultimately came in last.  This reduces a chance for the US women in this distance.  Cho Ha-Ri of South Korea was DQ’d for impeding.  All the Chinese women made it to the 1000m heats as well as the Canadian women. 

 

For the men, all of the US men made it to the heats, along with China and South Korea.  Olivier Jean made a bad pass during the prelims (a pass he did NOT need to make since he was already in qualifying position and had enough speed on the outside).  Charles and Francois Hamelin are the other two men that made it out of the 1000m for Canada. 

 

In the relay on the women’s side, the following countries advance to the semis:

China, Netherlands, United States, Hungary, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Italy

 

Germany made impeded against South Korea cause both teams to fall.  Great Britain impeded against Hungary during their relay match.

 

For the men’s relay:

Canada, Italy, Russia, China, United States, South Korea, Germany, Great Britain

 

France had a bad exchange that proved to be critical in keeping up with the Germans with 2 laps to go.  Because of this, they lost significant speed and Germany just started pulling away with the second qualifying position. 

 

 

 

Noah Asaghir of Australia leaned back on his skates and couldn’t push with his left skate going at fast speeds and fell into the pads. 

 

 

 

There is more racing today for Saturday!  Remember to follow my twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/shorttrackhd) for LIVE update the SECOND results.

 

 

Day 1

 

I’m here in the beautiful city of Montreal covering World Cup 3.  For the next two weeks, skaters will be attempting to qualify Olympic spots for their countries.  Here you can see a picture of the Korean National team getting ready to start their training session.  Based on some of the sessions I’ve seen during the days leading up to the competition, I’ve seen the ice break out numerous times on skaters.  It seems that the ice hasn’t gotten any better at all. 

 

For World Cups 3 and 4, skaters will qualify spots to skate in the Olympics for their COUNTRY, not for themselves.  Once the spots are determined, the governing speedskating body of the country will determine specifically who gets to skate.  This is where the US Olympic Trials + Canadian Olympic Trial results kick in. 

 

Unfortunately, before the event even started, there was news of disappointment when news broke out about skaters getting injured prior to the start of World Cups 3 and 4. 

 

Lee Ho-Suk of South Korea has broken his ankle and will be out for six weeks.  The current World Champion had been a huge favorite among the short track fans to put on an amazing show like he did for World Cups 1 and 2 especially during the relays.  I spoke to South Korean Coach Jeon Jae-Mok to ask about him, and he assured me that he WILL be ready for Vancouver 2010.  South Korea did not send a sixth skater to replace Ho-Suk.  So it just be Sung Si-Bak, Kwak Yoon-Gy, Lee Jung-Su, Lee Seung-Jae, and Kim Seoung Il. For the women I also don’t see Jeon Da-Hye.  I’ll ask the coach again for some answers.

 

Jordan Malone of the United States is also out from a torn ACL in his knee.  I asked him about his condition and it does not seem to be very serious.  He has just been cleared to put his skates back on, but in terms of the intensity of training, I’m not too sure.  I think he said he should be ok in two to three weeks.  Charles Ryan Levielle will be replacing Jordan at World Cups 3 and 4, but from the looks of things, he’s pretty much on the reserve list just in case he’s needed.

 

I hope these skaters recovery quickly so they can get back onto the ice to prepare for Vancouver 2010!

 

 

Day 1 of racing has finished.  Skaters competed in the 1500m and the 500m.  The biggest shock here in Montreal is that the current leader in the 500m, Kwak Yoon-Gy, did not make it out of his first 500m heat.  He didn’t fall and crash, but it looked as if he stripped an edge on his skates. 

 

A stripped edge is when you suddenly lose sharpness on one side of your blade (you only have two edges on a blade) due to the ice or dirt/debris on the ice.  You immediately lose grip on the ice and makes it super difficult to skate.  Just imagine cutting an apple with a dull blade, it’s essentially the same concept.  Just back reviewing the video I recorded, he simply could not put pressure on his left skate.  He came in a 46.05.  This certainly will not qualify him to move to the next round because that time will not make top 18 fastest.  I’m not too sure what to make of his race, but you can watch it yourself here.

 

 

 

On the US side, all the men made it through the 1500m and the 500m.  The women made it through the 1500m.  In the 500m, Lana Gehring didn’t make it out of her 500m and Dudek fell with two laps to go in her heat.  I’m not too sure what happened.  She looks as if she slipped on her right skate.  There go two chances for the US women for the 500m for this World Cup.  Reutter is the only US women for the 500m now.  Remember, Alyson Dudek won the 500m overall distance at Olympic Trials.  This means she gets dibs on the FIRST spot the US qualifies for at Vancouver 2010 in the 500m.  The COUNTRY qualifies the spots, NOT the skaters.      

 

For Canadian women, Kalyna Roberge and Valerie Maltais made it out of the 1500m.  Tania Vicent did not, however.  She was in a pack race and just couldn’t maneuver her way around.  Canadian women have now lost a chance in the 1500m.  In the 500m, St. Gelais, Roberge, and Gregg all made it out.

For the men, Jean and Charles Hamelin made it through to the 1500m semis. Guillame Bastille did not make it out of his 1500m quarterfinals.

 

No issues with South Korea in the 1500m for both the men (Lee Jung-Su, Sung Si-Bak, Kim Seoung Il) and the women (Lee Eun-Byul, Kim Min-Jung, Cho Ha-Ri). In the 500m, Kwak Yoon-Gy as mentioned did not make it out while his teammates Si-Bak and Lee Seung-Jae made it to the quarters.  No problem for the women in the 500m (Cho Ha-Ri, Lee Eun-Byul, Park Seung-Hi).

 

For China, Sui Bao Ku is the only skater out of the men to make it to the semis in the 1500.  Song Weilong was DQ’d from impeding and Lie Xianwei did not make it out of his heat.  They had no issues in the 500m (Wang Hong Yang, Han Jialiang, Liang Wenhao).  The women had no issues in both the 1500m (Liu Qiuhong, Zhou Yang, Sun Linlin) and the 500m (Zhao Nannan, Liu Qiuhong, Wang Meng). 

 

 

 

 

BACK HOME