MOSCOW, Russia (February 4, 2012) - Team USA captured its 14th World Cup medal of the season today, as 16-year-old rookie John-Henry Krueger (Pittsburgh, PA), won silver in the 1500m(1). Today’s podium marked Krueger’s first individual World Cup medal.
Krueger and Korea’s Jung-Su Lee sprinted to a lead early in the race, eventually lapping the pack of remaining competitors. Lee won gold with 2:18.260, Krueger posted 2:19.398 for silver, and Ho-Suk Lee (KOR) won bronze with a time of 2:24.122. Kyle Carr (Peachtree City, GA) finished 6th (2:27.847).
“It feels great to win my first senior World Cup medal. It’s an honor to get silver for the United States of America,” said Krueger. “The race was pretty stacked, every skater that was in that race deserved to be there. With Jung-Su sprinting up front, I was told to follow him and the other skaters decided to stay back and let him and me fight for it. He did win in the end, but the fact that I was able to be in the fray of the fight it was an accomplishment for me. Hopefully, I will compete the same tomorrow as I did today.”
Team USA’s ladies relay squad (Lana Gehring (Glenview,IL), Alyson Dudek (Hales Corners, WI), Jessica Smith (Melvindale, MI), and Emily Scott (Springfield, MO) raced to a second place finish (4:17.514) in their semifinal today behind Canada (Drolet, Maltais, St-Gelais and Hewitt) posting 4:16.317. Team USA moves on to tomorrow’s A Final with Canada, China and the Netherlands.
Smith led Team USA in the ladies 1500m (1) today with a fourth place finish (2:31.543), and Scott followed in fifth with 2:31.713. Current 1500m World Cup leader Ha-Ri Cho (KOR) won gold (2:31.162), Eun-Byul Lee (KOR) took silver with a time of 2:31.223, and Valerie Maltais (CAN) won bronze (2:31.351).
Elise Christie (GBR) had a dominating day in the 1000m, winning each round and the final, posting 1:31.211 for the gold. Qiuhong Liu (CHN) won silver (1:31.314), and current 1000m World Cup leader Yui Sakai (JPN) took bronze finishing at 1:31.940. Gehing raced in the 1000m A Final, but received a penalty. Dudek skated the 1000m C Final, posting a time of 1:32.718 for fourth place.
Simon Cho (Laurel, MD) took second place in today’s 1000m B Final with a time of 1:28.820. World Cup 1000m leader Yoon-Gy Kwak (KOR) won the distance with a time of 1:28.996, Jinkyu Noh (KOR) was second with 1:30.437, and China’s Wenhao Liang was third with 1:48.434.
Complete results from today’s races in Moscow are available here. Racing continues tomorrow beginning at 3AM (MST) and a live webcast is available at http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/site/index.html