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U.S. skaters go medal-less
Bulgaria, China set records at World Cup
By Gib Twyman
Deseret News staff writer
CALGARY — While they weren't things of beauty, performances may not have been as beastly as they seemed Friday for the U.S. team in the CMA Canada International Skating Union Short-Track Speedskating World Cup.
Uncle Sam went medal-less through a second straight outing fraught with flame-outs and misfortunes. The U.S. squad left a couple world records to other countries — Bulgaria's Eva Radanova in the women's 500-meter sprint and the Chinese women in the 3000-meter relay — squandering the superquick ice of the Olympic Oval at the University of Calgary.
Apolo Anton Ohno, America's best short-tracker, rebounded from a mild concussion after a fall in Thursday night's 1500-meter competition but faded in the last of the 4 1/2 laps of his 500-meter semifinal heat to Kim Dong-Sung of Korea. Ranked No. 1 overall in the world after two World Cup competition, Kim eventually won the event in 41.527 seconds, second-fastest time ever in the men's 500, next to the 41.514 set a week ago by Canada's Jeffrey Scholten.
Ohno, 19, slogged in at 47.766.
"I don't think he was bothered by the injury. We got his heart rate up on the bike and the trainers gave him a total clean bill of health. That wasn't the deal today," U.S. team leader Jack Gorrell said.
The deal with Rusty Smith, generally regarded the second-strongest U.S. skater, was that he was leading his semi, seeming well on the way to at least an American record. Then he crashed and burned entering the last curve.
"I had the American record by plenty and the ice broke out from under me. Maybe I was trying to hold too tight a line, keeping guys off me. But when the ice breaks, it breaks. Nothing you can do about it," Smith said.
"You're going 35 miles an hour on a slick surface. People fall. Rusty fell. End of story," Gorrell said.
Part of the rest of the story is that Daniel Weinstein, America's No. 3, got wiped in a lightning-quick semi heat in which Eric Bedard of Canada busted the third-fastest 500 ever, 41.660.
"One little slip killed him," Gorrell said. "But in short-track, all it takes is one little slip and you're done."
The American women were almost wholly without glimmers. Amy Peterson skated third and was eliminated in a 500 quarter-final at 45.831— the best a U.S. woman could say.
"We definitely are in a slump and we haven't worked our way out yet," Peterson said.
The American men also got their clock cleaned by Canada in the men's 5000, hardly heartening considering the U.S. is the defending 5000 World Short Track champ. But this event actually was a ray of hope.
While Canada was a couple curves ahead in the 45-lap race around the 111-meter oval, the U.S. finished second, moving ahead to the final Saturday.
And the team of Ohno, Smith, Weinstein and Ron Biondo made mincemeat of the American record, cranking 6 minutes, 48.815 seconds, slashing the 7:02.014 it posted in Nagano.
However, since the U.S. didn't make the first two World Cup meets in Asia, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, they won't rack up enough points to make the 2002 worlds. The U.S. must post one of the top three times to qualify and it was hoping to post in the 6:45 range.
"All you can ask is that your guys put themselves in a position to win or advance. They did that today," Gorrell said. "It's October. They don't hand out Olympic medals in October. Don't worry about Salt Lake (2002 Winter Games in February). We'll be there."
Radanova already was there, whizzing 43.671 seconds in the women's 500 final, smashing her 43.873, set last year in Lake Placid. The Chinese 3000 team of Yang (A) Yang, Yang (S) Yang, Chunlu Wang and Dandan Sun, blazed 4 minutes, 16.260 seconds, battering the 4:16.260 set by Korea in Nagano.
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October 20, 2001
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