Competition in China - 500 meters

The 500m races were today as well as the relay semis. Again, the 1+ qualification criteria made some interesting races.
Girls
1. Marianne St-Gelais
2. Mile Zhu
3. Wei Wang
4. Wenwen Li
Marianne was strong each round, winning the start and skating out front. In the final, Zhu beat her off the start and skated all over the place at 9.8. Marianne tried inside a couple of times (first straight and later) but couldn't get by. She had the last laugh though by blowing by Zhu on the outside on the last lap. Zhu tried hard to get her though with some traditional Chinese cross-tracking.
Marianne had the fastest time of the day too, so she's 1600 yuan richer ($250 cad).

Others:
6. Valérie Maltais (2nd in semi but not fast enough)
12. Nita Avrith (quarters)
17. Gabrielle Waddell (won quarter but was dq)
20. Marie-Andrée Mendès-Campeau (heat - barely missed on time)

In the B group, Liz Dier was the only skater to make the final but she didn't win.

The girls won their relay semi. (Maltais, St-Gelais, Mendes-Campeau, Waddell)

Men
1. Michael Gilday
2. Hongyang Wang
3. Alex Boisvert-Lacroix
4. Liam McFarlane dq

Liam was dq'd on Alex early in the race. The Chinese skater stole the start and that made for a hectic race. Michael went by Alex and Liam when the two of them bumped. Alex passed was at the back but came back strong, passing Liam and Wang on the bell. But he hit a block and went down. Before he hit the 'pads', he put his hands up but that only made things worse as his hand smashed into his face on impact. Eventually, you will all see pictures of the nice black eye he's going to have. He had enough awareness though to finish the race and claim 3rd. So Michael grabbed 1000 yuan as did Alex (400 for 3rd and 600 for fastest time - 42.2 - in the semi).
Alex went to the hospital for his orbital bone around his right eye but came back with the green light for tomorrow. Somehow, he managed to get pass the eye chart in Chinese characters. 象形字

Liam skated 8 500m races today, winning the B group in the morning and going all the way to the final in the afternoon.

Others:
5. Friesen (semi)
6. Guillaume Bastille (semi)
11. Remi Beaulieu (quarter)
17. Richard Shoebridge (heat)
24. Corey Rasmusssen (heat - should have been advanced after getting slammed around a few times)

In the relay, the Oval team finished 1st in their semi and the SSC team (Gilday, Beaulieu, Bastille, McFarlane) was DQ'ed.

Remi fell right before an exchange. Liam forgot to look both ways and collided with an oncoming Chinese skater, resulting in the DQ. The guys responded well and came back to finish 2nd but the DQ rules them out of the final.
Guillaume was almost rubbed out on the boards by another skater in the last two laps. The guy saw him coming by on the outside and just started going wider and wider, hoping that Guillaume would eventually hit the wall.


At least we are taking all their money!