Le 500m aux Universiades en Chine

Alex Boisvert-Lacroix's 4th place finish was Canada's top result today at the World Winter University Games in Harbin China. Alex skated strongly through the rounds, winning his quarterfinal and semifinal races with the fastest times. In the final however he made a tactical error on the opening lap which resulted in him being disqualified for impeding. In the old days, it would have been called "slowing down". In slowing down exiting the 1st corner, he was run into from behind by the Japanese skater Ito and both fell. Ok - he stopped completely. Anyways, a tough learning experience for Alex on a day where he looked certain to medal.

Liam McFarlane wound up 5th overall, getting passed at the finish in his semi by the eventual gold medal winner from Korea. A Chinese skater won silver.

Tyler Derraugh was elimnated in a rock 'em sock'em quarter-final and Richard Shoebridge was disqualified in his heat for impeding the Polish skater Kulesza. Richard may have been somewhat impatient in passing, but it looked like he was by and was in my opinion the victim of a good shoulder check from behind. He fell and is quite sore (upper back/neck).

500m Final A Men
1 088 JANG WON HOON KOR 00:43.973
2 067 GAO MING CHN 00:44.436
3 080 ITO JUNJI JPN 00:47.821
063 BOISVERT-LACROIX ALEX CAN DQ

In the women's 500m, Gabrielle Waddell and Marie-Andree Mendes-Campeau each finished 3rd in the semi-finals for 5th and 6th place overall respectively. Chinese skaters went 1-2-3-4.

Gabby skated a great quarter. She started from 4th on the line and was 2nd exiting the 1st corner behind one of the Chinese skaters. Leaving no gap, she was able to hold off the late-charging korean skater. A great race for her. In the semi, she started 2nd behind Qiuhong Liu. A small gap opened betweem them on the 2nd lap and she was passed by Yang Zhou. Again she was able to hold off the korean for 3rd, right behind the two Chinese.

Marie-Andree won her early rounds, ensuring favorable start positions. In the semi she started 3rd behind the two Chinese skaters. Skating wide and building speed, she was bumped by the korean skater who dove but was able to recover for 3rd.

Annik and Valerie were eliminated in the quarters. Annik lost contact with Liu and defended well versus the korean but was ultimately overtaken. Valerie recovered from a bad start to go 2nd on the 1st lap. She passed Belova into 1st but both of them were passed on the outside by Zhou and a korean on the last lap. She wound up getting dq'ed for kicking out.


500m Final A Women
1 011 LIU QIUHONG CHN 00:44.862
2 012 LI WENWEN CHN 00:44.929
3 010 MENG XIAOXUE CHN 00:45.084
4 008 ZHOU YANG CHN 01:06.975
At the end of the day the women qualified easily for Monday's relay final despite a fall by Val prior to her 3rd relay with Annik. Gabrielle was quick to cover however and the girls carried on. Nita rounded out the squad in the semi. They'll face JPN, CHN and KOR in the final.

Tomorrow is off... Then 3000m (3 rds) and men's relay semis.
SG