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Special coverage: Day Six U.S. Women Win 2nd Relay Gold
Hawking for Gold - New Zealand's Kalon Dobbin (front) gets his wheel over the finish line about an inch ahead of Italy's Francesco Zangarini (center) and USA's Joey Mantia (hands in the air).
Medal Leaders:
USA's Jessica Smith, her knee wrapped in bandages, came from behind in the sprint today to claim the gold medal in the 5000-meter relay. It was the second gold won by the U.S. women at the World Championships. They also won Monday's 3000-meter track relay. The U.S. team today consisted of Smith, Brittany Bowe and Smith's sometimes training partner Kelly Gunther. Argentina had the lead on the last lap of the relay and appeared likely to win. But 20 yards from the finish line, Smith flew by the Argentine skater and went on to win the race by one-tenth of a second. As she crossed the finish line, the 22-year-old from Melvindale, Mich., smiled and raised her arms in the air. Smith's right knee and calf were scraped and bruised when she fell in the sprint of yesterday's 20,000-meter elimination. Aside from the bandages, the accident outfitted Smith with a new helmet to replace the one she cracked in the fall. In the men's relay, the U.S. team of Joey Mantia, Dane Lewis and Jonathan Garcia missed a gold medal by three-thousandths of a second. The race came down to a battle between New Zealand, Italy and the USA.
In the final sprint, New Zealand's Kalon Dobbin and Italy's Francesco Zangarini had a slight lead over USA's Joey Mantia. But in the final yards, Mantia appeared to catch up. However, his toe wheel was in the air when he crossed the finish line (see photo above), costing him a few thousandths of a second. (Under international racing rules, a skater does not finish a race until a part of his skate — normally a wheel — that is touching the ground crosses the line.) Dobbin finished one-thousandth of a second ahead of Zangarini. Final Day The 2006 World Championships end tomorrow with what is expected to be one of the toughest marathons in years. Mantia will be defending his title (he won last year's marathon) against an unusually strong men's field. Among the skaters will be Italy's Massimiliano Presti, who has dominated the World inline Cup for the last three years, and Roger Schneider, the world record holder in the marathon. Last year, Mantia's biggest challenge came from the powerful Colombian team. That team will be even stronger this year, thanks to the presence of World Cup skater Jorge Botero. The women's marathon also promises to be exciting. Jessica Smith, the world's top woman marathoner, will be trying to win her first individual gold medal of the championships. And helping her will be her talented young teammate, Brittany Bowe. Related reading
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