The ISU brought their World Cup Short Track Speed Skating circuit through town in a test event for the Olympics and tickets were not as popular as I expected. I was able, with just a few days of notice, to score a pair of seats pretty close to the ice for just $20 each! I thought this was a great vantage point to judge the speed and aggression of the skaters heading through the turns.
The event started with the quaterfinals of the men's and women's 500 m and 1,000 m races. This being my first opportunity ever to watch speed skating live, I was a bit confused by several aspects of the event that you don't actually get to see on TV every four years when they cover this during the Olympics. First of all, there are actually five tracks that get used. The little black markers on the ice that delineate the turn get moved for each heat to make sure that the ice is smooth and consistent. When they move the track, they also pour several gallons of water onto the ice and squeegee it into the ruts that get carved out by the skaters' blades. By the time they've gone through the five tracks, they can go back to the first and the water will have had time to freeze and create a new smooth, consistent surface for the skaters again. My next question, of course, was about the distance staying accurate with the track changing every heat, but they take care of that with five separate start lines for each corresponding loop. The five or six guys who take care of maintaining the track throughout the event get a serious workout skating around fixing the ice and the track all day!After the quarterfinal heats, they cleaned the ice for real and prepared for the semifinals of the same four events. It was interesting to watch the strategies change from the 500 m races to the 1,000 m races. In the 500, it was essentially an all out sprint where the first person into the first turn more often than not came away with the victory. The 1,000 involved a lot more of the skaters playing cat and mouse with each other, getting through the first 2/3 of the distance without anyone really pushing it and waiting for someone to make the first move. Once the passes started happening, it was fast and wild to the finish.
The semifinal races generally each sent two skaters to the A final and two to the B final. From what I recall, B finals exist in case there are mass disqualifications in the A final, leading to the medals rolling down. I learned at the event that it's the responsibility of the skater trying to make a pass to avoid contact and it's that contact that leads to the DQ's. What I came to gather from watching though, is that some contact is clearly allowed. In fact, as the two Korean skaters in one of the 500 m semis squeezed a Canadian right out of the picture in the final turn, my outraged yelling for a DQ was met with inaction from the judges, but unkind reaction from the dozens of Koreans parked in the seats in front of me. Oops.
This clip that I found on YouTube was taken during the preliminaries on Friday or Saturday, but shows a pretty exciting race from World Record holder, and Canadian, Michael Gilday ...
The finals were pretty exciting with several Canadians spread through the races. None of them came up with golds, but Gilday got a silver in the men's 1,000, Remi Beaulieu took bronze in the same, Francois Termblay took silver in the men's 500, and Marianne St. Gelais won her first world cup medal, a silver in the women's 500 m. Looking through the list of people on the Candian team, it was clear that I am already way over the hill to take up short track speed skating, and apparently not french enough either!
After the individual finals were all complete, they really ramped up the excitement with the relay finals. It began with the women's 3,000 m relay which had five teams in the final due to an advancement due to DQ in the semis. This meant that there would be 20 skaters on the ice, all interchanging every lap and a half, trying to stay out of each other's way but not give any room for a pass. As the teams started to spread out a little it became dizzying just trying to watch and difficult to keep track. The excitement grew and the tight race eventually went to the Chinese over the Koreans and the third place Canadians. The men's 5,000 m relay was similarly dizzying, though with four fewer guys on the ice, a little easier to keep track of. The Canadians pushed extremely hard, but got edged out in the end by the Americans by about 0.8 seconds.
It was a great new experience to see live and something I would definitely recommend if you ever get a chance. I know I'll be trying to get tickets again when they come back to town, whether that be for another World Cup race, or the Olympics in 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment