As a father and as a fan (and having a ringside seat in the timer's box except when Liz skates) the first two days of Junior Nationals have been unforgettable. On day one, while sharing timing duties with Saratoga friends Don Acker and Bill Ralston, it was a thrill to watch Katie Ralston of Saratoga break 01:43.500 in the 1000 meter time trials, to qualify for A group, while being torn up to see Liz miss the cut four the top sixteen by six thousandths of a second. Day one was frustrating for Rochester skaters and also for two young Salt Lake skaters I've been happy to befriend, Matt Ferguson and Andrea Dahnke. Day two was a new day for Liz: three races, three personal bests: she went under 50 seconds for the first time in the 500 heat, and then beat her new best to win the A Final at 00:48.832. What a great way to shake off the disappointment of day one! But she was not done: leading wire to wire in the 1000 meter heat, she met the A cutoff by nearly a second, scoring 01:42.736 (perspective: she is consistently about twice as fast as her dad!!). Meanwhile , strong performances from Mitch Connelly, Lily Swartz and Mikey Burdekin (who turned in the smoothest race I have ever seen from him) rounded out RSST the day. Andrea and Lily were within thousandths of each other, while Matt's frustration continued with some falls and some bad luck that just defies explanation. Matt has been a fine example of sportsmanship, however: his frustration shows, but do does his class and determination. Marty Medina noted that progress in speedskating tends to come in chunks, and that Liz was posting some times in the last couple of meets that demonstrate that. By the way the photo above is a copywrited photo taken in Minnesota this fall at American Cup I by Jerry Search, and is reproduced here with gratitude. Anyone interested in a gallery of wonderful speedskating photo's should visit Jerry's site.
No comments:
Post a Comment