Rosy
Cheeks for Joey: Cheek Wins Gold Medal at World Cup
Calgary,
CANADA (Jan. 15) – On the final day of the Essent ISU World Cup
Speedskating competition at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, American Joey Cheek
brought home the gold in the men’s 500-meters event.
Cheek
(Greensboro, N.C.) claimed his first World Cup victory this season with
a 34.81 finish time. Yuya Oikawa (JPN) and teammate Joji Kato completed the
podium lineup with finish times of 34.83 and 34.89, respectively.
Casey
FitzRandolph (Verona, Wis.), coming off a silver medal finish Friday in
the 1000-meters, finished fifth in 35.01.
Cheek was the
top American finisher in the 1000-meters coming in eighth with a 1:08.87
finish time. The event belonged to Erben Wennemars (NED) who won in 1:08.26.
On the
ladies’ side, Tomomi Okazaki won the gold in the 500-meters with a finish
time of 37.73. This is the first time in this World Cup circuit where Manli
Wang (CHN) did not take home the gold.
Chiara
Simionato (ITA) won the 1000-meters in 1:14.89, maintaining a significant
lead over silver medallist Anzhelika Koyuga (BLR) who finished in 1:15.12.
Chris
Witty (West Allis, Wis.) was the top American finisher with an eighth
place finish.
Results:
(Results courtesy of www.isu.org. For
more detailed results, please visit
http://events.horses.nl/skating/2004-2005/worldcup/calgary/)
Ladies’
500-meters:
-
OKAZAKI JPN 37.73; 2.WATANABE JPN 37.87; 3.KOTYUGA
BLR 37.95; 4.WANG CHN 38.00; 5. YOSHII JPN 38.01; 6.WOLF GER 38.09
Americans: 17. OCHOWICZ 39.02; 18. WITTY 39.21
Ladies’
1000-meters:
1. SIMIONATO ITA 1:14.89; 2. KOTYUGA BLR 1:15.12; 3.
TIMMER NED 1:15.16; 4. VÖLKER GER 1:15.58; 5. REMPEL CAN 1:15.94; 6.
YOSHII JPN 1:16.02
Americans: 8. WITTY 1:16.71; 15. OCHOWICZ 1:17.94
Men’s 500-meters:
1. CHEEK USA 34.81; 2. OIKAWA JPN 34.83;
.3. KATO
JPN 34.89; 4.WOTHERSPOON CAN 34.97; 5. FITZRANDOLPH USA 35.01; 6. LOBKOV RUS
35.04
Americans: 15. FREDRICKS 35.42; 17. CARPENTER USA 35.58
Men’s 1000-meters:
1. WENNEMARS NED 1:08.26; 2. KOBAYASHI JPN 1:08.63; 2.
van VELDE NED 1:08.63; 4. BOS NED 1:08.67; 5. KOSKELA FIN 1:08.76; 6.
NIJENHUIS NED 1:08.81
Americans: 8.CHEEK 1:08.87; 11. FITZRANDOLPH 1:09.26;
16. CARPENTER 1:10.53; 18.PEARSON 1:11.09
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