2 USA SKATERS HOLD OFFICIAL "New World Records"

######################## NEW WORLD RECORDS ###################


I do not know how I ended up with the sheet of paper that I have... and it is missing "Official Signatures", but this was not the only document that was handed out to the Delegates (Team Managers) and the Press that did not have official signatures. It is in Spanish and it says that it is " Nuevos Records Mundiales Absolutos". Basically translated to English, "New Records Championships Absolute". So with that, here is what I have:


300-m Nicoletta Falcone Italia 26.071 Track

15,000m Alexandra Vivas Colombia 24:29.10 Track

200-m Bernice Moreno Colombia 18.13 Road

500-m Brittany Bowe USA 42.14 Road

10,000-m Hyo Sook Woo Korea 14:58.00 Road

10,000-m Jan Guyader France 13:40.12 Road

20,000-m Briggyte Mendez Colombia 32:53.54 Road

20,000-m Joey Mantia USA 28:50.48 Road


Once again, congratulations to all of the New World Record Holders!!!!!!!

Joey and Britt.... you guys kicked butt!!!!!!!!

LIGHTS GO OUT-HOLD UP THE PRESS

I was going to write about the great 5ooo-meter relay events that took place on the road last night, BUT..... when we got home it was raining pretty hard.

We ate dinner and I was just ready to sit down with the computer and the lights went out. At first it was fun with all of us sitting in the dark. We had to use my computer to "light" our way around the house to find candles and a lighter. Once that was done we sat at the kitchen table and talked about skating (of course). We had to get the Spanish-English dictionary out MANY times and when there was a misunderstanding we would laugh until our cheeks hurt and had to wipe the tears away.

But then it got old being in the dark. I had things to do and I was really tired of the lights being out. My Colombian family told me that this happens often and they just "go to bed"!

Go to bed??? Who had time??? But that's basically what we had to do. Which of course meant NO internet and no story.

It is raining right now... according to the radio the Jr Ladies are skating. The raido announcer is going nuts... but they always do... I hear Colombia, Colombia, Korea.... but tese are not placements... only leaders.... wow, I wish you could hear him. You would think we are at an Indy 500 race...... I have been told that he is just announcing the countries and numbers. But they have been racing for 50 minutes. But let's remember that it is raining where they are at. That should add at least 20-40 minutes to the typical marathon race.

I promise to put up "my account" of last nights relays... but it won't be until later.

THEY HAVE JUST ANNOUNCED... that Mariah Richardson and Alex Harris have passed the press area.... I do not know what that means... but that's great that Mariah is up with Alex. She has skated many marathons and done so in the rain. We will be back later, Linda and Ananda

5000M ROAD RELAY FINALS - UPDATED 8/26

**********************************UPDATE*************************************

--------------------------------------THE RELAY FINAL RESULTS-----------------------------------

I have typed these results twice over the last two days. But due to the horrendous rain showers that we have experienced here in Cali, Colombia, it has caused power outages and internet connection failures both times. Frustrated, I slammed my computer closed until this morning. Here are the results from the relay final events:

JUNIOR LADIES 5K RELAY FINAL:

1st - Colombia
2nd - Italy
3rd - Korea
4th - Argentina
5th - Germany
6th - China Taipei

JUNIOR MENS 5K RELAY FINAL:

1st - Italy
2nd - Colombia
3rd - Korea
4th - USA - Kevin Quandt, Keith Carroll, Colin Thomas
5th - Belgium
6th - China Taipei



I wonder if these skaters ever thought..."In less than 30 minutes, we will all be World Champions in the Senior 5K Road Relay" ???

From left to right: Sara Sayasane, Heather Richardson, Brittany Bowe, Michael Cheek, Joey Mantia and Joshua Wood - TEAM USA

SENIOR LADIES 5K RELAY FINAL:

1st - USA - Brittany Bowe, Heather Richardson, Sara Sayasane
2nd - Colombia
3rd - Argentina
4th - Korea
5th - China Taipei
6th - Chile

SENIOR MENS 5K RELAY FINAL:

1st USA - Michael Cheek, Joey Mantia, Joshua Wood
2nd - Italy
3rd - France
4th - New Zealand
5th - Colombia
6th - China Taipei

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE SKATERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!




There were only 4 races this morning. I missed the Jr Ladies skate and the Jr Men but I do have their results, along with the Senior Men... the Senior Ladies communication sheet was not available.


JUNIOR LADIES RELAY TEAMS WHO MADE TONIGHTS FINAL:

COLOMBIA
ARGENTINA
KOREA
CHINA TAIPEI
GERMANY
ITALY

JUNIOR MEN RELAY TEAMS WHO MADE TONIGHTS FINAL:

CHINA TAIPEI
USA
KOREA
COLOMBIA
ITALY
BELGIUM

SENIOR LADIES RELAY TEAMS WHO MADE TONIGHTS FINAL:

COLOMBIA
USA - Brittany Bowe, Sara Sayasane, Heather Richardson
CHINA TAIPEI
(I will have the other 3 teams later tonight)


SENIOR MEN RELAY TEAMS WHO MADE TONIGHTS FINAL:

COLOMBIA
ITALY
CHINA TAIPEI
USA- Joey Mantia, Michael Cheek, Josh Wood
FRANCE
NEW ZEALAND

I will not be taking my computer to the track. I would like to video all of the finals and take pictures during the warm-ups. I will post final results on my blog, however I know that Inline Planet will have all of the information you will be looking for on their front page tonight.

All of these races will be close tonight and their will be some upsets..... the family that I am staying with and myself have written down our picks PRIOR to us going to the Championships tonight. It will be interesting to see how close any of us are. There is ice cream riding on the outcome!! :) Hope you all will be able to watch on the live feed or will join us on our front page.

Don't forget, tomorrow morning the Marathon will start at 8am with the Junior Ladies. I understand that the course that we are driving to (outside the city a bit... not sure how far They say 20 minutes, but in Colombian time that might be 45!! I do love the slower pace!), is mostly flat, with no hills and simulates the last two years of marathons with it being a loop that is equal to about 12 laps. This is only through "Spanglish" so do not hold me to this!

Linda
p.s. more photos have been downloaded to my FLICKR site but have not yet been named.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58909696@N00/sets/

500 METER DOUBLE GOLD FOR USA

Wow.. 500 meters is fast.

Junior Man, Chad Horne fell within the first 100 meters but could not get back up. Medics are checking him out right now.

Brittany Bowe comes from 4th place to out hawk 2 Colombians at the line. It was the cleanest race that I have ever seen out of these ladies and we had to wait to get the info!! GOLD FOR BRITTANY BOW

And our final GOLD is for MR-ON-FIRE, SO-HOT YOU-CAN'T-TOUCH-THIS... MANTIA (LOL)

What a race... pretty much led it from the beginning and stood up 15 feet from the line AGAIN, with his hands in the air.... more to come! Linda

MANTIA STRIKES AGAIN -GOLD -20K ELIM

What can I say... a perfectly orchestrated "team race". Joey Mantia and Josh Wood skated great together. I don't know who's race it was to win, but Mantia led the majority of the 50 laps at 400 meters each. It appeared to me that Josh, who sat in behind Joey, was there blocking for Joey and keeping the other teams behind them. I know Joey... and he LOVES to lead.

When Joey stepped out to move up, Josh was on his backside like glue... at one point I thought that Joey might be skating for Josh... until Wood took a couple of "bumps and grinds" and then gave them "back", resulting in 2 warnings throughout the 44 laps that Josh remained. The first warning came on lap 48. Wood who was the last elimination, led Joey out hard with 3 to go and it panicked the rest of the pack causing them to jump on. Wood got passed right on the line, which is exactly where it counts!

Joey was incredible the last two laps. Again it was obvious to me that Joey was rested (I still don't know how he does it when he leads so much) and he was pumped. He KNEW that it was his. He stood up at least 25-30 feet before the finish line with his hands in the air. What a super race to watch and video tape!! It was wonderful to see Joey include Josh in his victory lap.

The 500's are coming up soon. Stay tuned.

1st USA Joey Mantia - 28 minutes 50.48 seconds
2nd COL Nelson Garzon
3rd ITA Fabio Francolini

SR LADIES 20K-ANOTHER TOUGH BREAK

Heather Richardson and Emily Scott started the race off together. It was evident that Emily was going to have to do all of the work. Heather was in there once or twice and did the very best that she could for Emily, but it wouldn't be enough. Heather was eliminated with 40 laps to go.

As tiny as Emily is, she is a fighter and that was what she was doing most of the next 6 laps that she survived. Her elimination would happen right at the line as she was in the middle and 4 girls went around here on either side. She appeared safe and I think she was as surprised as we were.

This race has been brutal... especially for the girls... several girls have fallen and been carried off or had to be taken to the medical tent. It is not because the girls can't skate, it's not because the road course is bad... it's because there is a lot of contact going on. And as much as the referee's have tried to stop it (and they have... they DQ someone and then that skater is reinstated per the higher ups)... there is not much you can do.

Nicole Begg from New Zealand fell right after the elimination line and got back up and skated her heart out. But it just wasn't quite long enough time for her to catch the pack.

With 13 laps to go Korea has just been eliminated but it appeared that Chile grabbed her first. There are 2 Colombians left, 2 girls from Chile... scratch that... 1 girl from Chile, Australia, France, 2 girls from Argentina and a couple of others with 11 to go. Another warning goes to Chile... they have had more warnings than I can count throughout the whole competition!!! Results will follow later..

20k ELIM TOUGH RACE FOR JUNIORS

In the Junior division we had the following skaters compete:

JUNIOR LADIES

Briana Kramer
Melanie Brandley

In this race it was just a tough race.... not that they all aren't. But it was fast and it appears that you really need a partner to fend off all of the other teams. Melanie skated a good race for her first individual race. She was there a couple of times with Bri but the pace proved too brutal. By lap 21 to go (out of a 50 lap race) she was off the back and eventually eliminated. Bri did a great job but I thought she skated a little too much on the outside which obviously is further around. Again.... it is so much easier to SIT here and write what I see versus being out there in it and doing it. Eventually Bri was eliminated.

With 9 laps to go it was a surprise that Korea was eliminated. The next lap the girl from Chile fell with France across the line and Chile fell into an embankment all twisted up. I seriously was shocked that she was able to get up and skate off.

With 3 laps to go France had caught back up to the pack (that is 400-meters that she skated by herself) and within inches was eliminated. The crowd was great and really clapped for her.

The last lap would leave Italy, Germany and Korea finishing top 3.

1st - #30 Germany
2nd - #45 Italy
3rd - #58 Korea
4th #51
5th #18 - Colombia

The numbers that were turned in versus what they called as official... do not match up. I apologize if any of the information is incorrect.

JUNIOR MEN

It would be Kimani Griffin's first race. And veteran Hank Galbraith. I was pleasantly surprised at Kimani's staying power. Hank and Kmani actually were a very strong team and had they skated very well together. There was a point where Chile grabbed Hank, Hank retaliated and then Chile pushed back all at the line. Hank was not eliminated, but disqualified. It's very unfortunate... that they did not see that Chile caused it and he reacted.

It was now all up to Kimani... .... but something else would happen... Hank being a "teammate" gave Kimani a "relay tag". I do not know if Kimai knew it or not but he shot to the front and they immediately DQ'd him. He actually looked good - good enough to medal at that point. But who knows....

Great job to these skaters...