Women’s 1000m short track and men’s relay results
Heart pounding short track racing continued this evening with some great outcomes for the US and tons of excitement for those watching.
The final four in the women’s short track were Katherine Reutter of the US, Wang Meng and Zhou Yang of China, and Park Seung-Hi of South Korea. There were no false starts and no big crashes, but after being passed, something happened to Yang and she dropped back far behind the other 3 skaters. It didn’t look like anything big; perhaps she just lost her stride and couldn’t get her momentum back. Wang Meng, the bright star of short track this Olympics, held a strong lead the entire race, barely bothered by those behind her. She finished gold, making her the 1st woman to win 6 medals in short track and China the 1st country to sweep all the women’s short track events. A jubilant Reutter got her skate over the line second for silver, and Park Seung-Hi got bronze.
The 45 laps of the men’s short track team relay looks like a well-choreographed dance during the exchanges. They don’t actually pass a baton, just touch, then the old skater shoves the new skater forward to try and gain ground. Each skater must only skate 1 lap, so you can plan a strategy around who’s stronger and make exchanges accordingly
The skaters began in a tight pack, but Canada pulled ahead midway through and maintained a steady lead to end, the hometown crowd wildly cheering.
The US team consisted of JR Celski, Travis Jayner, Jordan Malone, and Apolo Ohno. At first, they did not look strong and stayed mainly in the fourth position, but a mighty final effort from Apolo Ohno got the team bronze, just behind Korea. The win gave Ohno his 8th Olympic medal; maybe it made up a little for his disqualification earlier today.
