Yesterday evening we finished of the first world cup stop of the season here in Montreal. Overall the weekend went really well for the team, especially Sunday. Sunday Team Canada managed to pick up another 7 medals, including 4 gold (mens/womens 500m, mens 1500, mens 5000m relay). For me, I had a solid weekend as well, winning a silver in the 1000m and taking part in our winning relay team.
Obviously without the Koreans here, the races took a slightly different shape than normal, as everyone normally expects the Koreans to be in a fight for podiums at every turn. Despite that though, I don't think you can take to much away from our team. Both the men's and women's teams skated well and this was a good point to start off on as we begin a new Olympic cycle.
A second change this weekend was the introduction of several new rules. In order to create more passing the ISU decided to tweak how impeding was called. Previously, the onus was on the skater that was passing on the inside to make a clean pass (i.e no contact) as they moved up. Any contact with the skater being passed that caused that skater to lose position would have resulted in the skater executing the pass being disqualified. This year, the onus to keep the race contact free changes over to the skater being passed once the passing skater draws even with the lead skater. Because this was the first competition where we have seen this new rule being enforced, there was a bit of confusion on the part of athletes, coaches and officials, but as the weekend wore on, everyone got more and more used to how the rule would play out. It will still take time to iron out exactly how to take of advantage of the new rule from an athletes perspective, and also how to defend against it, but hopefully everything will lead in a positive direction for the sport.
Lastly, I want to extend a huge thanks and shout-out to one of our teams sponsors, Intact Insurance. Intact has been with our team for a long time and this year, has announced a new initiative that will help develop grass-roots skating in Canada. For each Canadian that steps on to a world cup podium this season, Intact will donate $1000 to a speedskating club in Canada. I can't even begin to explain how fantastic an initiative this is. Huge thanks goes out to Intact and if you have a chance to support this company, please do!
So thats all from Montreal, we head up the St-Lawrence this afternoon to Quebec City for the second World Cup of the year next weekend.
Photo by Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu
Photo by Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu
Photo by Peter Doucet - Speedskateworld.com
8 comments:
I was confused why you were DQ'd. Can you explain.
Hey Michael,
Congrats on last weekend in MTL...
Do you think u could email me asap regarding some still photo's of yourself skating in Yellowknife from a few years ago?
Monty
CBC
Oooops:
my email is: monty.farrell@cbc.ca
@northof60.
The main reason why I was dq'ed was that I failed to get my body ahead of the Chinese skater that I was passing, and thus impeded his progress.
According to the new rule, had I gotten my body even a few cms ahead, the onus would have been on him to not cause any contact. As it was, I was behind him slightly, and caused contact with him, thus putting myself in a position where the refs chose to DQ me.
Hope that is clearer. Even us athletes are still figuring it out!
Thanks for explaining that Michael. From the angle on TV, it looked as if you were ahead of him. Guess you weren't. Huge congrats on the gold you won this afternoon. We were cheering loudly in Hay River.
Congratulations Michael!
It is so exceptional to see Northerners excelling in their respected career choices, especially in sport at the National Level! For me it is truly special to see such amazing hard work pay off and I can’t imagine a more deserving person. I think it is often easy for many people in other parts of the country to overlook the added challenges we Northerners are up against in our quests to really excel in our life journeys and I think you deserve special recognition for that. I am definitely proud of my Northern roots as it has really contributed to shaping my character, which has made me who I am, and I get the idea it might be the similar for you. :)
Congratulations again and may this be the beginning of many more great memories for you ahead!
Sending love from Namibia!
Allison
Hi Michael, could you tell me if you have decided to donate your recent $1000.00 INTACT Insurance donation to the Blizzard Speed Skating Club.
I would be most interested to connect you with the local media in our city if you could find a few additional minutes in your busy schedule to duscuss this generous donation and how it assists local speed skating clubs.
Thank you and congratulations,
Duane Swan
info@pgspeedskating.ca
www.pgspeedskating.ca
Congrats Michael on you first two world cups and especially the gold Medal. It was exciting to watch on TV.
Well done!! Bob & Diane Miller
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