The final day was a rough day for the Calgary crew in Beijing. Falls and disqualifications were seemingly more common than usual.
After skating well in the quarter-final 500m, Jessica Gregg was disqualified in the semi-final for stepping inside the blocks on the start. It's pretty tough when battling with the Chinese girls off the start to keep your ground but that's just what Gregg will have to figure out how to do.
Michael Gilday had a similar experience on the start, getting forced inside the first block, however he was advanced. This landed him in the semi-final 500m where he unfortunately was disqualified for interference. Two guys passing at the same time and meet at the same place in the corner. This time it was Gday that got the DQ and the other guy the advancement.
Jessica Hewitt's day started in the 1000m quarter-final but was short lived. While making an inside pass she got pushed on the hip by a Chinese skater and went down on the straight-away. No DQ or advancement on this one, just a slide down the ice.
Richard Shoebridge had a great opportunity to advance to the semi-final 500m but just missed out on the next round by one spot. He was skating very well, just couldn't find the timing to get around the one skater keeping him from moving on in the competition.
The relays were exciting but didn't finish as we would have hoped. In the women's relay there was some confusion after a few errors and the last exchange happened after the finish line with 2 laps to go - not allowed. We ended up with a late exchange that led to confusion as to who was the active skater on the track. It ended up that Canada didn't finish the relay.
On the men's side, Korea was out of the running with about 30 laps to go after a missed exchange and the other countries took advantage. Canada led almost the rest of the way with the USA and China in pursuit. In the end, Canada made errors on the last 2 exchanges and the USA took the lead and the win. On a positive note, Michael Gilday skated in his first A-final relay. From my point of view he really skated well and held his own amongst the team.
Early to bed tonight as we have to be up early to head to Nagano, Japan for the second half of this trip. Looking forward to the next weekend. It's an opportunity for redemption.
JC
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