Silver for J.R. Celski and Bronze for Katherine Reutter 1000m; Bronze for Lana Gehring in 1500m
NAGOYA, Japan (December 3, 2011) – Team USA skated to three podium performances at today’s Korean Air ISU Short Track World Cup 3 in Nagoya, Japan.
J.R. Celski (Federal Way, WA) was in a close race in today’s 1000m (1) final, finishing second, posting 1:29.828, behind current World Cup 1000m leader Yoon-Gy Kwak (KOR) with a time of 1:29.743. Korea’s Yi Ra Seo was third (1:29.899) and Canada’s Olivier Jean finished fourth (1:30.090). This is Celski’s second medal of the 2011-12 World Cup season.
“I felt really good in that race. I knew I had some tough competition with the two Korean skaters and the Canadian. I knew it was going to be a game of tactics, so I stayed towards the front and Yoon-Gy got in front of me and just outskated me and outraced me. I’m really happy with how I did and I’m looking forward to skating tomorrow,” said Celski .
Katherine Reutter (Champaign, IL) added another medal to her 2011-12 season total, now at 3, with a bronze in today’s 1000m(1) ladies final. Reutter posted a time of 1:32.945, behind today’s distance winner and World Cup leader Yui Sakai (JPN) 1:32.713, and Elise Christie (GBR) at 1:32.786.
“Racing today was a true testament to the ability of Team USA to fight for every single medal that we earned out there,” said Reutter. “Racing conditions and ice conditions were pretty difficult today, but USA persevered and everybody came though with a spectacular performance. I think now that we are even more hungry to be on the top of the podium tomorrow, we’ll be more prepared, more focused and more excited to bring home some Team USA gold.”
Lana Gehring (Glenview, IL) won bronze in close race today’s 1500m posting 2:24.721, Arianna Fontana (ITA) won the distance with a time of 2:24.329, Ha-Ri Cho (KOR) was second at 2:24.423. Emily Scott (Springfield, MO) placed 6th in today’s 1500m (2:25.061), and Jessica Smith (Melvindale, MI) finished 9th (2:33.026). Today’s podium marks Gehring’s second World Cup medal for the season.
Travis Jayner (Midland, MI) finished 6th in today’s 1500m (2:15.892). Jinkyu Noh (KOR) won the distance today with a time of 2:14.941.
The men’s relay squad (Kyle Carr (Peachtree City, GA), Celski, John-Henry Krueger (Pittsburgh, PA), Jayner), skated strong and fought hard in today’s 5000m relay semifinal round with China, Canada and Great Britain. In the final laps, Team USA has moved up to second place, but fell back to third. At the finish Celski skated hard to regain the second spot and was blocked by Charles Hamelin (CAN) as they approached the line. Both skaters fell, and Canada was disqualified. Team USA advances to tomorrow’s Relay final with Korea, Russia, China and Japan.
World Cup racing continues tomorrow with competition in the men’s and ladies 500m, 1000m (2) and Relays. Racing will be broadcast live at http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/site/index.html, beginning Saturday, 12/3 at 11pm (MST). Please visit http://www.sportresult.com/federations/ISU/ShortTrack/ for complete results from today’s races.