The Plague. Which is what we have started calling it. It started with Cheeks, when he got sick. And then moved onto Joey. Joey couldn't skate pretty much all of track. Which sucked, but it gave Josh (not that he wouldn't have gotten it) another chance to get a medal after the points race in the 1000m. And Josh did just that, winning a bronze medal proving that US Senior Men not named Mantia can still earn medals. Not to say we didn't want Joey to be healthy and to skate because that would have just been more medals.
Racing. I skated the 500 and the relay. A lot of people told me through the 500 rounds that I looked really relaxed and calm. I felt great. We had 5 rounds. Heats- 1/8- 1/4 - 1/2 - finals. I skated through the semi winning every single one I skated and having the two fastest times in my semi and quarter final for the entire division. In the 500m final I managed to fall down while accelerating to make my move towards the front. As I crossed over the skater in front of me crossed back and my right foot got kicked by his left foot and I just went down fast.
After that I'll be honest, I was pissed off. But like many people wouldn't know I didn't sulk or anything, I sat down.. alone and visualized what I wanted to do in the relay. I figured I was going to get to the front as fast as possible and take it from there. So on my first time out I went around the pack on the outside and got to the front. From there on we picked the pace up. If you saw the video there's something you probably didn't know: although we picked it up and was going fast we all had another gear we were waiting to use. Anyway, receiving my tag with 4 laps remaining (we were still winning) I tried going around a Colombian awaiting his tag and as his partner flew up to tag him I ended up getting hip-checked or whatever but I ended up falling in the same exact spot and took out the number two team (Korea) with me. So I ended the day with two fourth place finishes: the worst of all.
Some results from road:
-Joey won the 20k for the fourth year in a row breaking the world record in that distance for the third time.
-Mariah got third in the 200m.
-Bri was tied for third place overall in the points race before a Korean skater fell down in front of her and she went over her.
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1 comment:
Keith:
I've read your posts on Hyper and thought, "What a smart and well spoken young man." I've seen your results this year, and saw the video that showed why you didn't place in the 500, and how you were taken out of the relay. I know right now 4th seems like the worst place to be. From another perspective, I've been so impressed with how you've done at Worlds this year, how hard you tried in the 4-man relay at nationals (talk about heart!), how quickly you got up from the falls at Worlds. The worst place to be would be the skater who appeared to deliberately take you out, but won. From my perspective, you're in a very good place--at least your heart, and your will to win, and obviously your will to prepare to win--they are all in exactly the right place. Keep it up. What you have shown so far as a person can never be taken from you. The rest is just icing on the cake.
Ami Raynor (Pattisons)
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