Salt Lake City World Cup cont'd

Today's world cup events were full of mixed emotions for my Calgary skaters. The end results finished up with some promising numbers however. Overall in the 1000m Jessica Hewitt finished 10th, Jessica Gregg finished 14th and Michael Gilday finished 8th.

Hewitt had a fantastic quarter-final. She made a crafty pass up the inside to move into second place. She held off a Korean, Sae-Bom Shin until the reach for the line. It was a heart pounding race that Hewitt showed incredible control, patience and strength. The only downside was a mistimed reach for the line which cost her a place in the semi-finals.

Gregg's 1000m quarter-final performance didn't live up to her potential. She didn't execute the race plan that she had prepared which would have helped her take advantage of her strengths. It was one of those races that starts off poorly and just doesn't seem to gain any ground as it moves along. She self-critiqued her race very well and showed she learned from her experience with her great skating in the women's semi-final relay. Jessica led the Canadian team off to a flying start with an 11.6 second opening lap. Probably one of her best ever. Along with the other girls, she skated some low 9's and the team finished comfortably in second place behind the Koreans to qualify for the A-final.

Gilday's 1000m event started off with a solid victory over Anthony Lobello of the USA and Jialiang Han of China. Again Michael showed his speed and great passing ability. The semi-final proved to be a little bit tougher as he was up against two Koreans; Ho-Suk Lee and Yoon-Gy Kwak, as well as Lobello. A slight error on Michael's part caused him to lose some speed as Lee was passing on the outside and Gilday finished up in 3rd. On to the B-final and he was up against Lobello again, along with Ye Li of China and fellow Canadian Francois Hamelin. The race started well but quickly turned sour as Francois and Michael ended up in the mats, both without any serious injuries, but having to settle for 3rd and 4th place respectively.

When all was said and done at the end of Saturday's racing, only one Canadian stood on the podium. Charles Hamelin took silver in the 1500m and it was an exciting race to watch. I think our team from Calgary has had a good taste of what is possible and they'll be fired up for the last day of this Salt Lake City world cup.

JC