Following Canadian Women Speed Skaters to Vancouver

CTVOlympics.ca
February 24, 2010

Canada takes silver in women's 3,000m relay

The Canadian women's short-track relay team made it six medals in six Olympic appearances, Wednesday, as Jessica Gregg, Kalyna Roberge, Marianne St-Gelais and Tania Vicent took the silver medal in the women's 3,000m relay.

The Canadian team was the third across the finish line behind South Korea and China, but a bump during the race caused the referees to disqualify the first-placed Korean team and halt their drive for their fifth-straight Olympic gold medal in the event.

China's Sun Linlin, Wang Meng, Zhang Hui and Zhou Yang took gold in a world-record time of four minutes, 6.610 seconds, while the Canadian team took silver in 4:09.137.

The United States was boosted to a bronze medal with a finish-time of 4:14.081.

Canada has earned a medal in the women's relay at every Olympic competition since the event made its debut in 1992.

Earlier in the day, the men's short track team - medal-less so far at these Games - made a statement as two Canadians lowered the Olympic mark and three advanced to Friday's 500-metre quarterfinals.

Charles Hamelin was the first Canadian men's skater to compete, Wednesday. After he missed out on a medal in both the men's 1,500m and 1,000m earlier this month, Hamelin was leaving nothing up to chance in the shortest-distance race.

With a jackrabbit start, Hamelin led the race from the start line to the finish, setting an Olympic record of 41.463 seconds on his way to qualifying ahead of Jon Eley of Great Britain.

Two heats later it was Francois-Louis Tremblay's turn to set the pace. He managed to lower Hamelin's mark by almost 0.05 seconds, finishing in 41.397.

Olivier Jean was the third Canadian to race and the third to qualify. Apolo Anton Ohno edged Jean at the finish. Jean finished second behind Ohno in 41.737 seconds.

Earlier Wednesday, all three women's skaters advanced to Friday's quarterfinals in the women's 1,000m as Jessica Gregg, Tania Vicent and Kalyna Roberge all finished in the top-2 of their heats.

In the first heat of the day, Jorien ter Mors of Netherlands and Allison Baver of the United States were both disqualified for bumping, leaving Park Seung-Hi of Korea and Vicent to advance. Park finished first in the race while Vicent finished a distant second after skidding out earlier in the race.

Roberge set an Olympic record in the second heat of the day, winning her race in one minute, 31.033 seconds ahead of Bernadett Heidum of Hungary. The record was later eclipsed by American Katherine Reutter, but Roberge will still advance to the quarterfinals.

Gregg's time of 1:32.565 handily won the fourth heat of the night in ahead of Ariana Fontana of Italy.