World Championships:

Colombia Back on Top
Red Machine wins three golds; Belgium ends its drought

By Robert "Just the Factoids" Burnson
Monday, Aug. 22, 2007

After four days of racing, the fans in Cali, Colombia, finally got what they've been waiting for: a day when the home team lived up to its billing as the top speed skating nation in the world and emerged from the shadows of South Korea and Joey Mantia.

Colombian skaters collected three gold, two silver and one bronze medal today to move unequivocally into first place in the rankings.

The high point for Colombia came in the finals of the women's 200-meter time trial.

With only three women left to skate, USA's Brittany Bowe took the lead with a time of 18.47 seconds. But then Colombia's Jennifer Caicedo, the reigning 200-meter world champion, posted a time of 18.27, and teammate Bernice Moreno posted a time of 18.40, giving them the gold and silver.

Colombia's two other golds came in the junior women's divsion: Sara Vallejo Valencia won the 200 meters and Maria Claudia Salazar won the 10,000-meter points race.

Korea's Modest Day

While Colombia rolled, Korea seemed a little less sure of itself today. During the first three days of racing, Korean skaters were protaganists in nearly every event. But today, as the racing moved to the road course, the Koreans seemed to take a less commanding role.

Only in the women's 10,000-meters did it dominate the field the way it had on the track

Germany's Jana Gegner, New Zealand's Nicole Begg and USA's Emily Scott were among the women grabbing points in the early laps of the race. (Skaters earned two points for crossing the line first on each lap, one point for crossing the line second.)

But eight laps from the finish, the Korean women, Hyo Sook Woo and Hye Mi Kim, took off. Taipei's Pan Yi Chin caught them and together they built a huge lead of about 80 meters.

Finally, Taipei's Chin dropped back and the Korean women crossed the finish line together about 15 meters in the lead. Woo collected a remarkable 17 points to take the gold; her teammate had 14 for the silver. The Taipei skater took the bronze with seven points.

It was Woo's second gold. She won the 10,000-meter elimination on the first day of the championships.

USA

The U.S. team was only able to manage two bronze medals today. Aside from Bowe's bronze in the 200 meters, Briana Kramer won the bronze in the junior women's 10,000 meters.

USA's top producer, Joey Mantia, was shut out.

In the 200 meters, he suffered a misstep and finished sixth. In the 10,000 meters, in which he was the defending champion, he caught a breakaway and scored a few points early. But after that, he was no longer a contender.

France's Yann Guyader won the race on the strength of two powerful breakaways. In the first, Italy's Luca Saggiorato joined him and together they stayed ahead for several laps collecting points.

A few laps from the finish, New Zealand's Scott Arlidge took the lead and started racking up points. By the final lap, the gold was within his grasp. All he needed to do was maintain his lead. But Saggiorato led a chase pack that caught him on the final turn.

Arlidge had to settle for silver while Guyader took the gold.

Belgium Wins Two

One team with a lot to celebrate today was Belgium. It won two gold medals today to break a gold-medal drought that has lasted at least four years.

Its first gold came in the junior men's 10,000 meters. In the early goings, Belgium's Bart Swings traded points with Italy's Davide Amabili and Holland's Koen Verweij. But Swings left the pack behind a few laps before the finish to take the win.

Belgium's second gold came in the men's 200 meters. Wouter Hebbrecht posted the fastest qualifying time in the morning (16.46) and cut one-tenth off the time to beat defending champion Gregorio Duggento of Italy by seven-thousandths of a second.

Does Belgium's success today signal the rise of a new skate power?

Maybe. Its new coach is Renee Hildebrand, the former coach and mentor of both Joey Mantia and Brittany Bowe.

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