World Cup #4**- Nov. 12-15, 2009 - Marquette, MI

[aaosmts19]

Referring to musicalmom's comments about Olivier Jean, I found this article from last week. Kind of ironic at this point:

I met his mother in Montreal and she is a lovely woman, with big red hair. A little bit of a thing, and very sweet.

=================

www.morethanthegames.co.uk/short-track-speed-skating/077097-pressure-olivier-jean-after-disqualification-montreal

CANADA'S Olivier Jean raged off the ice at the short track speed skating World Cup in Montreal, having been disqualified for blocking.

The 25-year-old, in attempting to improve his position in 1000m qualification at the Maurice Richard Arena, was called up for blocking German skater Tyson Heung.

It means Jean lost out on the opportunity to confirm his place at the Vancouver Winter Olympics next February. However, he will still have the chance to qualify next week in Marquette.

"It puts more pressure on next week," said Jean. "But I'm responsible for this extra pressure and I'm going to do everything possible to get back the points.

"I made a tactical error. The German was a bit wide at the start of the curve and I thought I had enough speed to pass him and I jumped into the inside.

"I misread the situation. I should have been happy with second place but it's not the end of the world."

There was good news for Great Britain however as Jon Eley and Paul Stanley advanced through the 500m preliminaries, while Tom Iveson crept through in the 1000m. But Charlotte GIlmartin was edged out of 1500m qualification.

In the 5000m relay, the British quartet of Eley, Stanley, Anthony Douglas and Jack Whelbourne progressed to the semi finals but in the 3000m, Gilmartin, Alex Whelbourne, Sarah Lindsay and Elise Christie were disqualified.

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Nov 13, 2009 19:05:37 GMT -5 musicalmom said:

Think he's trying too hard...he want's it so badly he takes unnecessary risks sometimes...also he's a bigger guy...might that make a difference? more of him to bump someone? I know it sounds silly but I've been wondering....he did alot of DQ'in even in the Oly qualifying....
Patience and finesse don't seem to be his strong suits, although he skates beautirfully and fast when he's on.
What do you think?
Musical Mom

He's DQ'ed in every distance except the 500 for the last two WC's. Apolo has said that short track is made for guys around 5'10"/5'11", but when everyone else is 5'7"/5'8" I think it is a little hard (especially since Jean is like 6'2"). I hate that the pressure has gotten to him (if that is why he's being impeding and stuff). :/

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Source: www.canada.com/sports/Speed+skating+team+braced+world/2218633/story.html

Canadian short-track speed skating team braced for last world cup event
BY STEVE EWEN, THE PROVINCENOVEMBER 13, 2009 1:47 PM

The Canadian short track speed skating team has its final world cup event this weekend in Marquette, Mich.

According to the International Skating Union, Canada (1,920) sits third in points in the women's 3,000-metre relay heading in, behind the front-running Chinese (2,512) and the Americans (2,112).

Korea's Eun-Byul Lee (2,128) leads in the 1,500 metres, China's Meng Wang (3,000) is tops in the 500 metres and Wang (2,112) also leads in the 1,000 metres.

With the men, Canadian Charles Hamelin (2,328) is tops in the 500 metres. Hamelin (1,468) is second in the 1,000 metres, behind Korea's Jung-Su Lee (2,312) and just ahead of his brother, Francois Hamelin (1,250). Korea's Si-Bak Sung and Ho-Suk Lee (1,800 each) are tied atop the 1,500-metre standings.

Korea (3,000), Canada (2,240) and China (2,080) lead the way in the 5,000-metre relay.

- - - - - - -

Source: www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/536150.html?nav=5010

Apolo, Reutter shine on skates
By BILL HARRIS Journal Sports Writer
POSTED: November 13, 2009

MARQUETTE - Apolo Anton Ohno and Katherine Reutter got off to good starts at the International Skating Union World Cup Thursday at the Berry Events Center in Marquette.

Ohno, who finished the 1,500-meter quarterfinals in first place, and Reutter, who sits in second place in the 1,500 after the first day, put themselves in good positions going into the remaining three days of the World Cup.

Ohno, competing for a spot in what could be his final Winter Olympic Games, - he has Olympic gold in the 1,500 from 2002 and the 500 from 2004, silver in the 1,000 from 2002, and bronze medals in the 1,000 and as part of the 5,000-meter relay team from 2004- finished his 13-lap 1,500-meter quarterfinal heat in 2-minutes, 16.157 seconds to clinch the top spot going into Saturday's semifinal heats.

Korea's Si-Bak Sung was second in the men's race with a time of 2:18.016, Travis Jayner, a member of the USA speedskating team, finished in 2:16.716, good for third place.

Charles Hamelin of Canada placed fourth (2:17.703) and Korea's Seoung Il Kim was fifth (2:15.752).

Ryan Leveille, an alternate skating in the place of an ill Jeffery Simon, finished in 36th place overall with his time of 2:24.396.

Jordan Malone - out with an injury - was replaced by Simon, the first alternate meant to take Malone's place. But Simon was not able to compete due to illness, which put Leveille - the team's second alternate - into the competition.

Though skaters were placed in each race by time, the overall standings did not place racers by time, but by the combined finish place in each race.

The times don't mean much in the 1,500-meter races, as there's more strategy involved and racers usually start off slowly, then pick up the pace while vying for top positions as the race goes on.

The top three skaters of each heat in the day's opening 1,500-meter preliminary events moved on to the quarterfinals.

Ohno finished first in his preliminary heat with a first place time of 2:31.554, and also took first place in the second 1,500-meter heat in 2:17.579.

A crowd favorite, there were cheers every time Ohno made one of his daring inside passes to gain the advantage and the lead in his races.

"The inside pass move works," he said." Everybody uses that pass, and it's just all about timing."

Jayner finished first with a 2:26.541 in his first preliminary heat and second in the next race with a 2:19.110.

Leveille was third with a 2:24.396 in the first 1,500-meter preliminary and fourth in the second race with a time of 2:41.463.

Reutter, whose second place time of 2:24.532 put her behind China's Yang Zhou (2:24:321), led a strong women's team in the 1,500-meter events. Allison Baver finished in sixth place overall with her time of 2:26.996, while Kimberly Derrick took 25th with a 2:25.137.

Reutter crossed the finish line in first place in both of her 1,500-meter heats, with a time of 2:37.208 in the preliminary race.

Baver was second in her heat with a 2:28.892, while Derrick was second with a 2:35.265 in her preliminary heat.

This could also be the last try at a place in the Olympics for Baver, who competed in both the 2002 and 2004 Olympics.

The World Cup 4 is serving as the second and final Olympic qualifying short track speedskating event for athletes hoping to make it to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, in February.

- - - - - - -

It's a minor thing, but it drives me insane - Ohno and Baver competed in 2002 and 2006, Mining Journal. They stopped doing the every two years thing awhile ago.

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Women - 3000M Relay - Quarterfinals - Results

Heat 1 [Splits]
Place Start Pos. Relay Team ISU Member Results Qual.
1 3 CHINA [SUN LinLin, ZHANG Hui, ZHAO Nannan, ZHOU Yang] CHN 4:13.705 Q
2 2 NETHERLANDS [MAU ASAM Liesbeth, VAN DOORN Annita, VAN KERKHOF Sanne, VOS Maaike] NED 4:18.160 Q
3 1 BULGARIA [GEORGIEVA-NIKOLOVA Marina, PATSOVA Gergana, RADANOVA Evgenia, VUTEVA Kristina] BUL 4:19.500

Heat 2 [Splits]
Place Start Pos. Relay Team ISU Member Results Qual.
1 4 KOREA [CHO Ha-Ri, KIM Min-Jung, LEE Eun-Byul, PARK Seung-Hi] KOR 4:16.930 Q
2 2 GERMANY [KLEIN Aika, PRIEBST Christin, RUDOLPH Susanne, WALTER Bianca] GER 4:17.217 Q
3 3 GREAT BRITAIN [CHRISTIE Elise, GILMARTIN Charlotte, LINDSAY Sarah, WHELBOURNE Alex] GBR 4:19.077
4 1 ITALY [FONTANA Arianna, MAFFEI Cecilia, VALCEPINA Martina, ZINI Katia] ITA 4:27.147

Heat 3 [Splits]
Place Start Pos. Relay Team ISU Member Results Qual.
1 2 UNITED STATES [BAVER Allison, DERRICK Kimberly, DUDEK Alyson, GEHRING Lana] USA 4:18.175 Q
2 3 HUNGARY [DARAZS Rozsa, HEIDUM Bernadett, HUSZAR Erika, KESZLER Andrea] HUN 4:18.528 Q
DQ 1 RUSSIA [BELOVA Ekaterina, BELYAKOVA Olga, EVTEEVA Nina, POTEMKINA Valeriya] RUS DQ

Heat 4 [Splits]
Place Start Pos. Relay Team ISU Member Results Qual.
1 1 JAPAN [OZAWA Mika, SADAKANE Hiroko, SAKAI Yui, SAKURAI Biba] JPN 4:16.113 Q
2 2 CANADA [GREGG Jessica, MALTAIS Valerie, ST-GELAIS Marianne, VICENT Tania] CAN 4:16.646 Q
3 3 POLAND [BELLA Aida, BZURA Paula, MALISZEWSKA Patrycja, ROMANOWICZ Anna] POL 4:22.333

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Men - 5000M Relay - Quarterfinals - Results

Heat 1 [Splits]
Place Start Pos. Relay Team ISU Member Results Qual.
1 2 UNITED STATES [LOBELLO Anthony, OHNO Apolo Anton, LEVEILLE Charles Ryan, JAYNER Travis] USA 6:44.802 Q
2 1 CHINA [SUI Bao Ku, HAN Jialiang, SONG Weilong, LIU Xianwei] CHN 6:45.137 Q
3 4 GREAT BRITAIN [DOUGLAS Anthony, WHELBOURNE Jack, ELEY Jon, STANLEY Paul] GBR 6:46.314 q
4 3 RUSSIA [KOZULIN Evgeny, ELISTRATOV Semion, PRANKEVITCH Sergei, KURGINYAN Vyacheslav] RUS 6:46.336

Heat 2 [Splits]
Place Start Pos. Relay Team ISU Member Results Qual.
1 1 CANADA [HAMELIN Charles, HAMELIN Francois, TREMBLAY Francois-Louis, BASTILLE Guillaume] CAN 6:44.886 Q
2 4 KOREA [LEE Jung-Su, KIM Seoung Il, LEE Seung-Jae, SUNG Si-Bak] KOR 6:45.153 Q
3 3 FRANCE [MATTEI Jean Charles, MASSON Jeremy, CHATAIGNIER Maxime, FAUCONNET Thibaut] FRA 6:48.101 q
4 2 JAPAN [ITO Junji, YOSHIZAWA Jumpei, TERAO Satoru, FUJIMOTO Takahiro] JPN 6:58.292

Heat 3 [Splits]
Place Start Pos. Relay Team ISU Member Results Qual.
1 3 NETHERLANDS [BREEUWSMA Daan, VAN DER WART Freek, KERSTHOLT Niels, KNEGT Sjinkie] NED 6:46.536 Q
2 2 GERMANY [HERRMANN Paul, SEIFERT Robert, PRAUS Sebastian, HEUNG Tyson] GER 6:48.540 Q
3 1 ITALY [BEAN Nicolas, CONFORTOLA Yuri, RINALDI Claudio, RODIGARI Nicola] ITA 6:49.214
4 4 KAZAKHSTAN [BEKZHANOV Aidar, DAUMOV Aslan, NURMAGAMBETOV Azamat, SULTANGALIYEV Artur] KAZ 7:08.164

[tdav]

Yay Canadians!!! Way to shut down those Koreans in the relay! I won't say anything because I don't want to jinx us. Lol

[aaosmts19]

This is a very interesting article on so many levels.
Hard to know, when you aren't there getting more information, how/what events actually put us into the "will participate in Vancouver column"....so here's an indication of where we currently stand.

Also great insight into the depth of our team, and how grateful we should all be for Ryan and Anthony!!!!

For those disheartened with Apolo's performance, this article drives home the difference between these 2 WC's and any other given year. It has been all about getting to Vancouver via Montreal and Marquette and good, safe skating (I have to keep telling myself that!).



www.jsonline.com/sports/etc/70084242.html

Leveille unpacks skates to help
By Gary D’Amato of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Nov. 13, 2009

Marquette, Mich. — Ryan Leveille had retired from speedskating, moved back home to Atlanta, bought a motorcycle and started getting ready for college and the rest of his life.

Then he got a phone call from Guy Thibault, the high-performance director for U.S. Speedskating.

Because of injuries to skaters J.R. Celski and Jordan Malone, the U.S. short-track team needed Leveille to help the men's 5,000-meter relay team secure a starting spot at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

On Friday, at the final World Cup/Olympic qualifier at the Berry Events Center, Leveille and another alternate, Anthony Lobello, helped push the four-man U.S. relay team into the semifinals.

That gave the Americans enough World Cup points to secure a starting spot in Vancouver.
Celski (thigh laceration) and Malone (knee) are expected to recover in time for Vancouver, so Leveille and Lobello probably will be sitting at home, watching the Olympics on television.

Both failed to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team in September, so though they are skating as alternates here, they won't compete in Vancouver.

"It's all right," Leveille said. "I was planning on retiring after the Games, anyway. It's nice to know that my training was working. I actually set a personal best in the 500 (Thursday). I went faster than I've ever gone, so it's nice to end on that."

Leveille has lived in Milwaukee and trained at the Pettit National Ice Center for the last five years. He made the 2006 Olympic long-track team and skated in the team pursuit.

He had been off his short-track skates for two months when he got the call from Thibault before the World Cup in Montreal last week. His skates were still in Milwaukee and he had to have them shipped overnight to Canada.

"I've just been getting ready for school," said Leveille, who has been accepted into Emory University in Atlanta.

The relay team, consisting of Leveille, Lobello, Travis Jayner and Apolo Anton Ohno, breezed through its heat and then survived a couple of hectic exchanges in the quarterfinal to win in 6 minutes 44.802 seconds.

"There was some confusion on some of the exchanges," Jayner said.

Leveille isn't skating in any of the individual races Saturday and Sunday, so now he is officially, officially retired.

"I'm done," he said. "Well, I was done two months ago. Thank God I didn't sell my skates."

It would take a PhD in mathematics to explain how countries secure Olympic starting spots in short-track, but it appears as if the U.S. will have the maximum number of starters (three) in every individual race except the women's 500 (two), plus the men's and women's relay teams.
Qualifying was based on cumulative points from two World Cups - last week in Montreal and this week at Northern Michigan University.

"Our goal going into this was to qualify three positions for every distance and so far I think we've missed one 500 spot," said Katherine Reutter. "We're doing really well. Our team is so strong and so deep right now. We can take alternates all day long and we'd still have world-class speedskaters."

Alyson Dudek of Hales Corners, who won the women's 500 at the Olympic trials, is all but guaranteed to skate the 500 and the 3,000 relay in Vancouver, pending the final results of this World Cup.

"It's not for sure yet, but pretty much," she said. "Nothing is set in stone until after the World Cup. I don't want to jinx myself."

Dudek and teammates Allison Baver, Kimberly Derrick and Lana Gehring won their relay quarterfinal in 4:18.175 and advanced to the semifinals Sunday.

[aaosmts19]

Taking care of business...prepping for the men's relay.

L to R: Travis, AAO, Charles Ryan, which by default means that those other feet must be Anthony's!

[mtnme]

LADIES 1500M SEMI FINAL

Heat 1 [Splits]

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 3 SUN LinLin CHN 2:24.070 QA
2 6 MALTAIS Valerie CAN 2:24.195 QA
3 5 KIM Min-Jung KOR 2:24.247 QB
4 1 NOVOTNA Katerina CZE 2:24.249 QB
5 4 POTEMKINA Valeriya RUS 2:24.381
6 7 HEIDUM Bernadett HUN 2:24.555
7 2 SADAKANE Hiroko JPN 2:25.526

Heat 2 [Splits]

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 5 LIU Qiuhong CHN 2:23.392 QA
2 2 ROBERGE Kalyna CAN 2:23.780 QA
3 6 BORODULINA Tatiana AUS 2:23.897 QB
4 3 HUSZAR Erika HUN 2:23.966 QB
5 4 OZAWA Mika JPN 2:24.073
6 1 REUTTER Katherine USA 2:46.810


Heat 3 [Splits]

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 3 ZHOU Yang CHN 2:29.489 QA
2 4 LEE Eun-Byul KOR 2:29.628 QA
3 1 VICENT Tania CAN 2:30.321 QB
4 5 RADANOVA Evgenia BUL 2:30.353 QB
5 2 FONTANA Arianna ITA 2:30.455
6 6 BAVER Allison USA 2:30.625


MEN'S 1500M SEMI FINAL

Heat 1 [Splits]

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 5 HAMELIN Charles CAN 2:14.718 QA
2 3 CHATAIGNIER Maxime FRA 2:14.802 QA
3 6 SUNG Si-Bak KOR 2:14.891 QB
4 4 ZAKHAROV Ruslan RUS 2:15.109 QB
5 2 RODIGARI Nicola ITA 2:15.410
6 1 LIU Xianwei CHN 2:15.567

Heat 2 [Splits]

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 4 SONG Weilong CHN 2:15.712 QA
2 2 GYSEL Pieter BEL 2:15.763 QA
3 6 ELISTRATOV Semion RUS 2:18.022 QB
4 5 CONFORTOLA Yuri ITA 2:52.678 ADV
5 1 KIM Seoung Il KOR 3:01.682 ADV B
DQ 3 JAYNER Travis USA DQ


Heat 3 [Splits]

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 2 LEE Jung-Su KOR 2:14.101 QA
2 1 OHNO Apolo Anton USA 2:14.249 QA
3 4 SILOVS Haralds LAT 2:14.448 QB
4 6 SUI Bao Ku CHN 2:14.794 QB
5 3 BEAN Nicolas ITA 2:15.055
6 7 ITO Junji JPN 2:15.202
7 5 HERRMANN Paul GER 2:17.002

_______________________________________________________________

WOW, for a second there before Apolo skated I was starting to think it was me! I didn't watch the blinking numbers Thurs and Friday...and the team does great. I tune in today and...

HONEST!!! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! I DIDN'T DO IT!!!

[kirkland]

Hey MM,

Love the over-reaction thingy.

I am relieved to see Apolo doing much better than Montreal. Is this the last competition before the Olympics?

[mtnme]

Yes Kirkland, it is the last competition before the Olympics. (At least for the Oly team anyway. I'll have to check the calendar for any other competitions the rest might be doing)
Then they can all recoup, train and heal up.

As for the overeaction guy...that's a Lexi original! She always had the best emoties! LOL



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LADIES 1500M FINAL
Final B

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 3 KIM Min-Jung KOR 2:33.502
2 5 VICENT Tania CAN 2:33.578
3 4 NOVOTNA Katerina CZE 2:33.663
4 6 RADANOVA Evgenia BUL 2:33.670
5 2 HUSZAR Erika HUN 2:33.791
6 1 BORODULINA Tatiana AUS 2:33.869

WOMEN'S 1500M A FINAL
Final A

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 5 ZHOU Yang CHN 2:22.700
2 1 LIU Qiuhong CHN 2:22.870
3 6 LEE Eun-Byul KOR 2:22.919
4 3 SUN LinLin CHN 2:23.530
5 4 MALTAIS Valerie CAN 2:24.217
6 2 ROBERGE Kalyna CAN 2:26.844




MEN'S 1500M FINAL
Final B

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 6 KIM Seoung Il KOR 2:18.094
2 1 SILOVS Haralds LAT 2:18.720
3 4 ZAKHAROV Ruslan RUS 2:18.842
4 2 SUI Bao Ku CHN 2:18.988
5 5 ELISTRATOV Semion RUS 2:21.391
DNS 3 SUNG Si-Bak KOR DNS (oh-oh...)
(...we told ya'll to stay away from those pads...)


MEN'S 1500M FINAL AFinal A
Jump to Heat
1 Heat 1 [Splits]

Place Start Pos. Name ISU Member Results Qual.
1 1 LEE Jung-Su KOR 2:13.595
2 2 OHNO Apolo Anton USA 2:13.731
3 3 HAMELIN Charles CAN 2:14.216
4 5 SONG Weilong CHN 2:14.884
5 6 GYSEL Pieter BEL 2:15.312
6 7 CONFORTOLA Yuri ITA 2:15.387
7 4 CHATAIGNIER Maxime FRA 2:15.673

[aaosmts19]

ESPN radio is broadcating live at: ESPN 970

www.warpradio.com/player/player.asp?m=noadfound&id=4976

It is their first attempt at broadcasting live.

They replayed a conversation they had with AAO last night and I am paraphrasing his comments, and dropping the questions.


up against tough competition with China, Korea, Canada, Italy...field is deep; good for the sport; skating fast times;
makes my game better; you have to change with the sport or you'll get left behind;
looking for space and mistakes; you can get away with waiting early in the races; just feeling the ride out, having fun man, getting used to my skates.

What's a mistake?
..a slip, a track differentiation, getting tired;
typically these are early rounds, usually with 2-3-4 laps left they get tired and you usually see mistakes being made.

Our team has so much depth...sometimes i wish we could bring all 8 guys to the olympic games.
how's your health? so-so

[aaosmts19]

Paraphrasing an interview with Charles Hamelin after the Final 1500.

A lot of jostling: crazy on the ice; I think everyone wanted the front; that was the battle; a lot of bumping and action; I used too much energy to fight for the front and it cost my legs in the end;
Always tough racing again KOR and USA. Always have to be smart to have the legs at the end and I wasn’t; but I’m proud of my race.

[aaosmts19]

Lobello is absolutely on fire in this compeition. He came in first in his 500 Heat.

They caught him for an interview, still trying to catch his breath. My paraphrasing:

You are filling in for sickness and injuries on your team, how are you doing?

We've already qualified all our spots; I'm looking 20 feet ahead and just keep skating.
confident on the ice surface; nothing to complain about.

[aaosmts19]

Katherine Reutter set a new American record in her 500m heat with a time of 43.760!!
5 minutes ago from web