2. ING Quarterfinals
After two weeks and thousands of votes, the finalist field has been narrowed to the Top 8 video stories, with new matchups now available for viewing at www.INGSpeedSkatingChallenge.com.
Will your favorite video be crowned Canada’s Best Speed Skating Story? Remember, votes from Round 1 will not be carried over to Round 2, so get online today and vote for your favorite video story.
Round 2 voting begins Monday February 23rd, 2009 and ends Sunday March 1st, 2009 at 12:00 AM Midnight MST.
4. How Did Canada Do?
Harbin – On their last day of competition at the 24th Winter Universiade in Harbin, Canadian athletes did not disappoint by taking three medals. Guillaume Bastille (Rivière-du-Loup, QC) finally got what he deserved with a silver in the 1000m, and went on to help the relay take another silver medal, and the women’s relay team added a bronze.
Bastille came very close to the podium in yesterday’s 3000m when he finished 4th, so he was hungry for a medal today in the 1000m, a distance in which he won a pair of World Cup bronze medals last season. “I thought Guillaume had a great week, and with him coming so close yesterday, it was nice to have him break through and get the medal he deserved,” explained coach Stephen Gough.
Korean Lee Seung Hong was the only one beating Bastille in the final, when he crossed the line in 1:28.064, just .8 seconds faster than Bastille (1:28.838). The bronze medal went to Russian skater Ruslan Zakharov (1:29.131).
“He [Bastille] skated a really tough final,” continued Gough. “All week we’ve been having trouble getting the officials to give the skaters the proper rest. The television coverage of the event is dictating the rest the athletes are getting. We’re supposed to be getting 20 minutes, but that’s not always happening. I thought he did a good job preparing for the final in a tough environment and skated a good race.”
Two other Canadians came close to the final, but were stopped in semi-final rounds, Richard Shoebridge (Cambridge, ON) and Liam McFarlane (Medicine Hat, AB) finished 8th and 9th respectively. Alex Boisvert-Lacroix (Sherbrooke, QC) made it to the quarter final round for 12th place.
On the women side, Red Deer’s Gabrielle Waddell was the top Canadian skater today with a 10th place. She was stopped in quarter final. As was Marie-Andrée Mendes-Campeau (Montréal, QC) and Valérie Lambert (Sherbrooke, QC), who finished 11th and 15th respectively. Nita Avrith (Montréal, QC) did not make it through the first round and had to settle for 27th place.
In relay action, the Canadian men’s team made of Bastille, Boisvert-Lacroix, Shoebridge and Tyler Derraugh (Winnipeg, MB) captured the silver medal with a time of 7:03.929, second only to China in 7:00.424. The Korean team took bronze (7:05.141).
“Unfortunately, our success earlier in the day may have caught up with us in the afternoon,” said Stephen Gough. “There were a number of Chinese skaters that maybe should have advanced further than they did, and they were able to get their legs again for the relays. We hung in there until about eight or nine laps left in the race, but we just couldn’t hang on.”
The women’s team (Lambert, Avrith, Mendes-Campeau and Annik Plamondon of Longueuil) took the bronze medal, behind China and Korea.
“I thought it was a really good day for Canada,” explained Alex Boisvert-Lacroix. “I think we maybe could have had a few more than the three medals we won, but we’re very happy. The relays have always been strong for Canada. It was a fun week, especially to be around the other athletes. We don’t get a chance to do that very often, and to have other athletes from other sports around in the village was good.”
Canadian short track skaters have concluded their competition at the Winter Universiade with today’s three medals. Their long track teammates still have three days of competition ahead of them.
On the long track side, Canada’s Justine L’Heureux (St. Tite, QC), Kirsti Lay (Medicine Hat, AB) and Shannon Sibold (Calgary, AB) put together their very first team pursuit, racing 2400m around Harbin’s long track ice in 3:13.45 to finish in sixth place in their last event at the 24th Winter Universiade in China.
"It's the first time we've skated together in the pursuit, and it went pretty well. Our exchanges were good and the pace was good too," said L’Heureux. All three women have trained and competed in team pursuit races, but this competition was their first time with each other.
"The last lap was very tough because the legs were very heavy and tired. It's been a long week and we're getting really tired, but I thought we did a good job today. It's unfortunate we just missed a chance to skate for a medal, but that's been the way it's gone all week," she added.
The Canadian women raced in both the heats and finals today, also coming 6th in the heats with a time of 3:12.64, just .18 second difference to the Netherlands one spot ahead. In the finals, L’Heureux, Lay and Sibold were paired with the Dutch team, who were able to increase their gap time on Canada to take 5th place, with Canada 6th in 3:13.45 and the Dutch again in 5th in 3:10.64.
"The top two teams were way in front of the group. Then it was three or four team all within a second or two of each other,” described L’Heureux about the heats. “We were right on the edge of getting into the top-four, and we have to be happy with that."
The winners of the women’s team pursuit were China, with Universiade medalists Dong Feifei, Ji Jia and Fu Chunyan, clearing almost a 5 second gap between themselves and Korea, who came second to win silver. China finished in 3:07.38 and Korea in 3:12.37. Poland won bronze in 3:08.97.
Canada’s men did not compete in the team pursuit or the 10,000m race yesterday, but returned home.
L’Heureux, who attends CEGEP, also had good results yesterday in the 1000m, when she finished in 9th place in 1:19.59. Lay and Anastasia Bucsis (Calgary, AB) stayed in the top 20, finishing in 16th and 17th spots, and Sibold 24th.
Canada’s four speed skating women, along with Philippe Riopel (Lachenaie, QC), Vincent Blouin (Quebec, QC), Keith Sulzer (Calgary, AB) and Mykola Makowsky (Regina, SK), were the first team of long track athletes to compete for their county at the Winter Universiade.
Zakopane – The Dutch skaters Roxanne van Hemert and Koen Verweij were crowned ISU World Junior Champions this week-end in the Polish resort town of Zakopane, which welcomed a record-breaking number of 128 skaters to its new artificial rink.
For the first time, World Junior Championships were also held on the individual distances. The two Dutch overall champions could also bring home two single distance victories each, while there were also single distance championships for their compatriots Yvonne Nauta and Pim Cazemier, for Olga Fatkulina of Russia, Mitchell Whitmore of the United States and Jan Daldossi of Italy.
On the 500m, Olga Fatkulina was the fastest both in the first race on Friday (which was the one that counted for the allround combination) and in the second race on Sunday. In Sunday’s excellent conditions she further improved the track record she had already set in the first race, below the 40-second barrier to 39.85. Jee-Min Ahn (KOR) had the second-best time in both races, and Yukana Nishina (JPN) was third in both races.
Roxanne van Hemert almost clinched the all-round championship on the first day by winning the 1500m with a margin of victory of 2.37 seconds. This meant she held a lead of over a point in the overall standings. Second was Yvonne Nauta, who had also taken second place in the 1500m championships. 500m winner Fatkulina was third on the 1500m, but as she was not competing in the all-round, the third place overall after the first day was held by 16-year-old Karolina Erbanová (CZE). When she went on to win the 1000m, van Hemert not only secured her second individual distance title, she also expanded her lead on her competitors for the overall title. The skaters who came closest to her on the distance were Hege Bøkko (NOR), who had otherwise been suffering from skate and back problems, and Fatkulina who made her third podium.
This meant that van Hemert entered the 3000m with a comfortable lead, and her overall victory was never really threatened. When she started, the lead was held by Do-Yeoung Park of Korea in 4:24.82, and although van Hemert looked poised to beat this time, she ran out of steam and finished in 4:25.98 with a 39.7 final lap. She later stated that she was so tired she could not even lift her arms over her head to celebrate her world championships. Her pairmate Yvonne Nauta, who had been even with van Hemert only two laps from the finish, beat her with more than four seconds on those two laps and took the 3000m gold in 4:21.54, along with the silver medal overall. In the end there was also a surprise for the home crowd: Katarzyna Wozniak had skated evenly throughout the championships, and finished with a strong 3000m, which proved good enough for bronze overall.
Mitchell Whitmore (USA) became the world junior champion for men on the 500m, and he laid the foundation for this victory with an impressive track record of 36.44 in his first race. Canadian Richard Maclennan had the best time in the second race, but he was too far behind after the first race and had to settle for silver over the two races. Another Canadian, Guillaume Blais-Dufour, took the third place. In the first 500m, Jan Daldossi of Italy had the fastest opener with 9.99, but fell – but on Sunday he made up for his misfortune, winning the 1000m in 1:12.35. Jonathan Kuck was second, Roman Krech (KAZ) third.
If the ladies’ contest seemed almost decided after the first day, the men’s contest was, on the contrary, very close: After a surprisingly good 3000m Jonathan Kuck (USA) held a very narrow lead over the pre-tournament favourite Koen Verweij (NED), with Brian Hansen (USA) and Pim Cazemier (NED) also in contention. Verweij took the world championship on the 3000m as expected, with Cazemier and Kuck completing the podium, but his margin of victory was not as large as he would have hoped. The 1500m result made very little change in the overall standings: Pim Cazemier won in 1:52.66, which meant he climbed to a temporary third place overall, but Kuck and Verweij stayed very close to one another. The two remaining distance medals went to Roman Krech and Jan Daldossi, two skaters who were not competing for the overall title.
So it all came down to the final quartet on the 5000m, with the two Dutchmen Verweij and Cazemier skating simultaneously with the two Americans Kuck and Hansen. The Americans long had the best split times, but towards the end Verweij showed himself as the strongest 5000m skater, winning both the title on this distance and the overall championships. Jonathan Kuck had to settle for silver overall and bronze on the 5000m. The silver on this distance went to Brian Hansen, a result which also took him past Cazemier in the overall standings and gave him bronze.
The team pursuit contests were won by the Dutch team both among the ladies (for the eighth time in a row, they have won this competition every time since it was introduced in the junior championships in 2002) and the men (for the fifth time in a row). The ladies’ team consisted of Roxanne van der Hemert and Jorieke van der Geest from last year’s winning team, supplemented by Yvonne Nauta. The Japanese team came second, the Koreans third. Among the men, Koen Verweij could also defend last year’s victory, in a team with Pim Cazemier and Lucas van Alphen. The German team was second, USA third.
