Short Track Team struggles in the 500m at World Championships

Peri Kinder - U. S. Speedskating March 09, 2009



March 7, 2009-Vienna, Austria. The second day of competition at the ISU World Short Track Championships in Vienna, Austria was a tough one for the U.S. men and ladies teams. Today's races featured the 500m event, a distance the U.S. team has struggled with in the past. Although the skaters demonstrated great racing skills and strategy, Team USA couldn't get past the semi-final rounds.

Apolo Anton Ohno (Seattle, WA) and Kimberly Derrick (Memphis, TN) both made it through to the semi-finals but Derrick kicked blades with a British skater and wasn't allowed to compete. Apolo was impeded in the first lap, but because he was in third position at the time, he did not advance and had no chance to catch up to the leaders.

"It's disappointing," Ohno said. "I felt great today. I know I could have done much better."

J.R. Celski (Federal Way, WA) was disqualified during his quarter-final and Jeff Simon (Las Vegas, NV) fell coming out of the corner with two laps to go in his quarter-final. The ladies made a valiant effort with Katherine Reutter (Champaign, IL) and Jessica Smith (Melvindale, MI) both skating fast, but not quite fast enough to make it to the semi-finals.

The men's 5000m relay had some big upsets as the Canadian team was disqualified and the Korean team fell with 15 laps to go, and are out of the relay finals. The U.S. men's relay team consisting of Ohno, Celski, Simon, Jordan Malone (Denton, TX) and Ryan Bedford (Midland, MI) qualified for the finals and will skate against China, Italy, Japan and Germany during Sunday's races.

Although the results today aren't what the team was hoping for, they are still optimistic for the rest of the competition. "[There are] still a lot of points left to grab tomorrow so nothing is over yet," said Guy Thibault, US Speedskating High Performance Director. "I'm expecting a strong comeback from our team."

Racing concludes on Sunday, March 8 with the men's and ladies' 1000m, super 3000m and the relay finals.

Tags: Apolo Anton Ohno, J.R. Celski, Jeff Simon , Jessica Smith , Jordan Malone, Katherine Reutter, Kimberly Derrick, Ryan Bedford

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