Podium finish for Celski at World Short Track Championships

Team USA hit the ice ready to go at the 2009 ISU World Short Track Championships in Vienna, Austria. The day started off strong with four of the six U.S. skaters that competed in the 1500m making the finals. J.R. Celski, Apolo Anton Ohno and Jeff Simon fought it out with five other skaters in the men's 1500m final while Katherine Reutter battled against six Korean and Chinese skaters in the ladies' 1500m event.

Celski (Federal Way, WA) skated a great 1500m, leading for most of the race with Ohno (Seattle, WA) right behind him. With only one-half lap to go, Celski was passed by Ho-Suk Lee and Yoon-Gy Kwak of Korea and finished in third place. Apolo took fourth and Simon (Las Vegas, NV) was taken out when Korean skater Si-Bak Sung fell.

"I looked back to see where Apolo was and didn't realize Ho-Sok and Yoon-Gy were passing me," Celski said. "I felt really good today and I'm very surprised on the results."

In the ladies' 1500m final, Reutter (Champaign, IL) jumped to second place and was making a move to pass into first when she lost her balance and fell, taking a Chinese skater with her. With two other skaters disqualified in the final, Reutter still ended up in fourth place. Kimberly Derrick (Memphis, TN) and Jessica Smith (Melvindale, MI) both made it to the 1500m semi-finals but lost speed and didn't make it through to the finals.

The ladies' relay team, consisting of Reutter, Derrick, Smith, Alyson Dudek (Hales Corners, WI) and Lana Gehring (Glenview, IL) skated a strong semi-final, finishing with the second fastest time of the day. They will meet up with teams from China, Korea and Canada in Sunday's 3000m relay final.

Racing continues on Saturday, March 7 with the men's and ladies' 500m events and the men's 5000m relay semi-final.