Short Track Speed Skating in Toronto

For the first time, Toronto was host to a World Cup Speed Skating event at the Mastercard Centre in Etobicoke. I attended the Friday heats session and the Saturday session with the 500m/1500m finals as well as the semi-finals of the relays. I had a ticket for Sunday as well, but my daughter was in a soccer tournament with two games on Sunday so I chose to see her team win the tournament rather than seeing Canada's best short track speed skaters.

The highlights of the World Cup for me included seeing Vancouver 2010 medallists and sweethearts Marianne St-Gelais and Charles Hamelin.

Marianne wins the bronze medal in the 1500m
Photo credit: Phil Sewell

Photo credit: Phil Sewell

Another highlight was seeing the excitement of winning a World Cup medal at home.

Samuel Girard is thrilled to win his first World Cup gold medal.
Sasha Fathoullin is happy to join him on the podium with the silver in the 500m
Photo credit: Phil Sewell

François Hamelin celebrates a bronze medal in the 1500m
Photo credit: Phil Sewell

It was great to see the athletes receiving their medals (no national anthems though).

Photo credit: Phil Sewell

Another highlight for me was seeing the relays in person. It is even more chaotic than it seems on television. When watching it in person, you really get to see all the athletes - not only the ones that the cameras are focused on. You also get to see how hard the volunteers work to get the black markers back in their places when they are knocked off their spots while trying to avoid the racers. If I thought it was a tough job during single racing, it was four times more difficult with four times the athletes on the track at one time.

Photo credit: Phil Sewell

Photo credit: Phil Sewell

The event was almost sold out on Saturday and Sunday when the athletes would be racing for medals. It was not on Friday for the heats, but there was a school who brought a large group of students in matching World Cup toques to see this sport in person. That's a field trip I would have loved as a child. They had hand made signs and enjoyed cheering the athletes. It definitely added some excitement to the heats day.

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

We were reminded that short track speed skating is a dangerous sport when Kim Hanwool of Korea fell and got seriously injured as he slid into the boards with Great Britain's Paul Stanley.

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

With space in the stands, I took the chance to see the racing from another view point near the finish line which doubled for the start line for the 1000m races. No opportunity to do that on the Saturday when the stands were almost full.

Valerie Maltais - ready to go
Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

I did prefer the view from the end of the track where we had a great view of the athletes coming around the bend.

Photo credit: Suzanne Sewell

Hopefully the event will be held again in Toronto. I would definitely return to see the world's best speed skaters in action. Seeing it live gives you such a greater appreciation for the sport and the speed at which the skaters go around the track.

Short Track Speed Skating: Was it a racing incident or deliberate cheating?

After watching the Short Track Speed Skating World Championships 1000m men's race, I was angry and sad.

Contact happens in short track speed skating. I know that.

A skater doesn't deliberately take another out but skating so close and so fast with each other, accidents happen and sometimes a skater is found at fault and penalized (disqualified).

When these incidents happen, fans/commentators will say things like:

• luck was on his side (or not on his side)
• that's short track
• they have to accept it for what it is

I have often said those things but in my opinion, they do not apply this time.

You can see it by clicking here. What do you think?


Sin Da Woon of South Korea had no chance at the overall title, but his teammate did. While Park Se Yoeong sat back in 4th, his teammate (in 3rd) first nudges/pushes Wu Dajing of China aside who was in 2nd place at the time. On the last straightaway, he even more obviously pushes Charles Hamelin aside with all his might (it takes two attempts to finally impede him enough). It's amazing that Charles stayed on his feet and reached the line in second. Wu Dajing who was earlier impeded would finish fourth. Sin Da Woon was disqualified.

In a regular incident when the contact is accidental, the skater at fault would be penalized and the results stand (if in an earlier round, sometimes the impeded skater will still go through to the next round). Sometimes it is luck. Sometimes a skater is in the wrong place at the wrong time or miscalculates their pass. You are taken out or detained and you have to accept the result.

This time is different for me because it was done deliberately to reward a teammate like Hamelin said after the race:

"I'm a little disappointed with only getting the silver," said Hamelin. "I was on my way to a gold medal when the two Koreans teamed up, sacrificing one so the other could win. One pushed me in the last turn and I ended up second."

On the podium, the Korean put the gold medal in front of Hamelin but that's little consolation though.

I am heartbroken to see this happen in an Olympic sport. I am perhaps naive to think that cheating shouldn't happen in Olympic sports.

I'm not saying that cheating doesn't happen, but you hope that when it does, the International Olympic Committee or Sport Federation will do something about it.

Cheating is not new in short track speed skating. At the 2011 World Team Championships, an American skater tampered with Olivier Jean's skates which affected the team's relay performance. You can read CBC's 2012 article here and a 2013 updated article here.

In that instance, the athlete and the coach were suspended for 2 years from the ISU. I am hoping that the International Skating Union will look at this incident and take action to prevent such blatant cheating from succeeding in the future.

Heartbeat Highlights

Here are the highlights in amateur sports during the past week.

Track & Field

Special shout-out to Olympic bronze medallist Derek Drouin who broke the Canadian indoor record while winning the Division 1 NCAA high jump with a jump of 2.35m (he won bronze with a jump of 2.29m). Read more here and see interview here. click here for other Canadian results.

Videos for the CIS Indoor Track & Field Championships are here and results list here.

Freestyle Skiing World Championships

Click here for Saturday's rebroadcast of CBC Sportsweekend's coverage of freestyle skiing and here for Sunday's.

The Freestyle Skiing World Championships wrapped up yesterday with Canada winning 10 medals.

Yesterday, on the 1 year anniversary of Nik Zoricic's death in a ski-cross race, Marielle Thompson won the silver medal in ski-cross dedicating her result to Nik. Click here for the video. The men did not fare as well perhaps affected by the memory, especially with Brady Leman's semi-final race being delayed by a crash.

Kaya Turski won the gold medal in Slopestyle followed by Dara Howell for a Canada 1-2. Click here for the video.

The men's moguls competitions saw Canada win gold and silver twice. Mikaël Kingsbury won gold in moguls and silver in dual moguls. Alex Bilodeau won gold in dual moguls and silver in moguls. His podium performance in the moguls assured him a spot on the 2014 Olympic team (Mikaël had previously qualified). Click here for the Men's moguls and here for the dual moguls.

Chloe Dufour-Lapointe won gold in the dual moguls while sister Justine won the bronze in the women's moguls. Click here for dual moguls and here for ladies' moguls.

Travis Gerrits punched his ticket to Sochi 2014 by winning the silver medal in the aerials event. Click here for video highlights.

Click here to browse CBC Sports's ski videos.

Snowboard World Cup

Dominique Maltais won the Snowboard Cross event in Arosa, Switzerland with Maelle Ricker joining her on the podium. Click here to see the race.

Matthew Morison won the silver in Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom in Arosa. He started the second run 0.38 seconds behind but made the final very exciting. Click here for the video. Caroline Calvé captured the bronze in the same event. Click here for the video.

Short Track Speed Skating World Championships

Click here for rebroadcast of CBC Sportsweekend's Saturday coverage of short track and here for Sunday's.

Canada's short track speed skating relay team of Charles Hamelin, Michael Gilday, Olivier Jean and Charles Cournoyer won gold in the 5000m relay in Debrecen, Hungary. Gilday had the "save of the century" just before the 5:30 mark of the race. There is no replay at the end, so you may want to rewind during the race to see it again. Click here for the video.

The women's relay of Marianne St-Gelais, Marie-Ève Drolet, Valérie Maltais and Jessica Hewitt won the bronze in the 3000m relay. Click here for the video.

Marianne St-Gelais won silver in the 3000m final. Click here for the video.

Charles Hamelin won bronze in the men's 3000m (video) and 1000m races (video).

Long Track Speed Skating World Cup

I have not found videos of the long track speed skating. Christine Nesbitt won the gold in the 1000m and bronze in the 1500m. Ivanie Blondin won the silver in the mass start.

Curling

Northern Ontario's team of Brad Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harden and Ryan Harden won the Brier and will represent Canada at the World Championships in Victoria March 30th-April 7th.

Finally, Objectif Sotchi's weekend broadcast can be watched here.

Heartbeat Highlights

The Heartbeat is my weekly newsletter detailing which upcoming events are being held in Canada and which events are being televised or streamed on the internet.

Heartbeat Highlights is a review of those events which will include outstanding results and links to videos of those great performances for those who may not have been able to see the events live.

It was another stellar weekend for our Canadian athletes.

Davis Cup Tennis - Vancouver

Canada's Davis Cup tennis team made history on the weekend beating #1 Seeded Spain to reach the Elite 8 in the Davis Cup for the first time. If you missed it, you can view the highlights from day 1 by clicking here, the doubles highlights here and the day 3 video highlights is here.

Canada will host Italy in the quarter finals April 5-7th. City to be determined.

Summary: Canada 3 - 2 Spain
Milos Raonic def. Albert Ramos 6-7(5) 6-4 6-4 6-4
Frank Dancevic def.  Marcel Granollers 6-1 6-2 6-2
Marc Lopez/Marcel Granollers def. Daniel Nestor/Vasek Pospisil 4-6 6-4 6-7(4) 6-3 6-2
Milos Raonic def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3 6-4 6-2
Albert Ramos def. Frank Dancevic 7-5 6-4

Luge World Championships - Whistler

You can view competitions by clicking here and then clicking on the link in the schedule for each event.

Summary:
3rd Women's Event:  Alex Gough
2nd Team Event: Alex Gough, Sam Edney, Justin Snith, Tristan Walker
1st U23 Doubles: Justin Snith, Tristan Walker (4th overall)
5th Men's Event: Sam Edney

To read Luge Canada's summary report, click here. To read Eric MacKenzie's Canadian Press report, click here.

Bobsleigh Skeleton World Championships

The World Championships for Bobsleigh and Skeleton have been held during the past two weekends. Click here for the Bobsleigh Skeleton TV YouTube channel where they have every heat from each event posted. Last weekend, Kaillie Humphries repeated as World Champion with new partner Chelsea Valois.

This weekend was the skeleton and 4 man-bobsleigh competitions.

The highlight for Canada was Sarah Reid who won bronze in the women's skeleton. Click the links for heat 1, heat 2, heat 3 and heat 4 and highlights.

Snowboard Cross World Cup

Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood was host to the Snowboard Cross World Cup this past weekend. Thanks to CBC Sportsweekend for the telecast.

Men's: 1st Chris Robanske
Click here to view the exciting men's final.

Women's: 2nd Dominique Maltais
Click here to view the women's final that also included Maëlle Ricker.

Short Track Speed Skating

Charles Hamelin has shown that he will be the one to beat next year with a double win at the Sochi test event.

1st Charles Hamelin 500m (Click here for video)
1st Charles Hamelin 1000m
2nd Women's 3000mRelay

FIS World Cup - Deer Valley

Moguls
1st Mikaël Kingsbury (19th consecutive podium)
2nd Alex Bilodeau
Click here for video.

As a sidenote, Sportsnet is televising last weekend's Calgary World Cup today and tomorrow. Check your local listing here.

Dual Moguls

1st Alex Bilodeau
Click here for video of men's final.

2nd Justine Dufour-Lapointe
Click here for video of women's final.

Aerials

2nd Travis Gerrits
Click here or here for video.

FIS Cross-Country World Cup

Just over one year to the 2014 Olympics, the cross-country World Cup was held in the host city, Sochi.

Click here for video highlight. Click here for Haywood Race Report.

Women's relay 3rd Dasha Gaizova and Perianne Jones

FIS Ski-Cross World Cup

2nd: Tristan Tafel
Click here for race video with a very exciting finish.

Sportsnet is replaying the Ski-Cross action today. Click here for local listings.

Water-Polo World Championships Qualifying

Canada's men's and women's teams competed in Calgary this past weekend in the hopes of qualifying for the World Championships. Both teams were successful. Click here to read more.

Objectif Sochi 

Whether you speak french or not, Objectif Sochi which airs on the french CBC network on Saturday afternoons is worth watching. There are some bilingual features and lots of Olympic sport action. Click here to view past episodes.

Road To The Olympics

CBC have launched their Olympic website in anticipation to the 1 year to go to Sochi on Thursday.  Click here for athlete profiles, videos and news.

En Route Vers Les Olympiques 

Radio Canada a aussi lancé leur site Olympique. Plus infos.