Action, Speed, Strategy . . . or just GO FAST, TURN LEFT! HOT ICE in Bay City
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WOW! There's nothing else to say about watching short track speed skating in person! This is one hot sport.
Frankly I wasn't sure what to expect. Like most folks, I had watched the Olympic short track events on TV and thought they were exciting. But I don't know much about ice skating and probably would not have gone to the Bay City event had it not been for the high visibility, world class athletes, Like Apolo Anton Ohno, who were going to be there. Given that, and the fact that my girls would be home from college for Spring Break, I bought a couple of weekend tickets. It was worth every cent. Elyse Ciaravino (13) and Taylor Krause (14) from Linden. Fans of "you know who". | I didn't go to the Friday or Saturday event. The girls and some of their friends went and reported that it was really great and that Anton was REALLY HOT! Okay, I guess that made it worth the money. On Sunday my oldest daughter and I decided that we should go for the morning at least. I grabbed the digital camera and we headed out for the 9:00am races. When we arrived at the arena and saw the the entire vacant field across the road was filled with cars, I began to think this might be something. |
| After the first lap the entire complexion of the race changed. Coming around the far corner, as if a trigger had been pulled, one of the skaters in the rear suddenly exploded in an inside move and leaped to the front, and then all hell broke loose! The crowd went wild and the real race was on. Not all races start slow. One of the longer races, with a larger group of slaters, started slow, and aftertwo laps the judge whistled for a restart. The judge can do that if he feels that things are entirely too slow. |  #41 Nicholas Frank of Westlake Ohio signs autographs |
On the restart it seems the skaters got the idea. Everyone blasted off the line like sprinters. In this race, one skater took an immediate lead and within a couple of laps was almost a full lap ahead of the pack. The announcer commented that it would be interesting to see if he could hold that lead for 27 laps. He Did... until the last lap. As the crowd screamed, another skater broke from the pack and overtook the leader to win by inches.
Perhaps the most fun of the day came after all of the real racing for records. Traditionally the last day is capped off with the team relays "just for fun". The women raced first for 27 laps and really warmed up the crowd. The ice is filled with skaters. Four skaters race around the outside while teammates hover in the middle. When it's time for a hand off, racers from the center start to pace thepack, then move ahead and merge in front of their teammate. The overtaking skater touches the new racer with a solid push to transfer momentum. It's fast and can be dangerous!After getting pumped by the women's relay, the men cameon. To everyone's pleasure, they opted for a 47 lap race. All the top skaters were on the ice including powerhouse Apolo Ohno racing for the orange team. This promised to be good . . . and it was. The race was fast and furious and Orange was almost always in SECOND place. At the final pass off, Ohno came in for the Orange team. As the crowd roared, Ohno simply exploded on the back stretch of the last lap and took the lead and the race. What a rush!
So now I'm educated. Now I understand. Now I'm a FAN! This was great and the Bay City organizers did a fantastic job by landing the event for Bay City and then making it work so well.
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Stephen Kent |
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