Two speed skating medals were decided on Monday in men's events. The Netherlands continued its dominance on the track with another three medals in the sprint, but first up was the Men's 1500 m Short Track that had no shortage of drama in the finals.
Four men gave Team USA its best chance to reach the podium on Monday with J.R. Celski being the sole representative in the short track, followed by Shani Davis, Tucker Fredricks and Mitchell Whitmore in the Men's 500 m.
Men's 1500 m Short Track
Another gold medal came for Canada in the Iceberg Skating Palace when Charles Hamelin sandwiched his race with speed, setting the pace early before finding a comfortable groove amid the pack. It felt like he burned too much energy early, but the 29-year-old veteran turned on the speed in the final laps to hold off Tianyu Han of China and win the gold medal.
J.R Celski of Team USA won the bronze medal in Vancouver in 2010, and was quick in Sochi but was off the pace of top competitors entering the final. For a time it looked like he would be in medal contention, but the field quickly pulled away in the final four laps to leave Celski outside of the podium, he finished in fourth place.
You can find the full results here, but this is how Final A finished.
Result | Country | Name | Time |
Gold | CAN | Charles Hamelin | 2:14.985 |
Silver | CHN | Tianyu Han | 2:15.055 |
Bronze | RUS | Victor An | 2:15.062 |
4 | USA | J.R. Celski | 2:15.624 |
5 | CHN | Dequan Chen | 2:15.626 |
6 | KOR | Han-Bin Lee | 2:16.466 |
7 | GBR | Jack Welbourne | No time |
Men's 500 m
The pace was very different in the sprint event that saw patient pacing replaced with an all out sprint. Shani Davis' best distance is at 1000 m, but tried his hand at the shorter event that saw the Netherlands run away with the gold and the silver and the bronze.
Jan Smeekens posted a two stunning times, and it seemed he had the gold medal in hand but a time change meant that countryman Michel Mulder took the gold. More than one Mulder won on Monday with twin brother Ronald winning the bronze. It was another dominant performance from the Dutch who have been cleaning up in speed skating so far.
The podium continues to evade Team USA in Sochi with the Trucker Fredricks coming the closest in 26th.
The full results are available here, but these are the Top 10 finishers.
Result | Country | Name | Time |
Gold | NED | Michel Mulder | 69.31 |
Silver | NED | Jan Smeekens | 69.32 |
Bronze | NED | Ronald Mulder | 69.46 |
4 | KOR | Tae Bum Mo | 69.69 |
5 | JPN | Joji Kato | 69.74 |
6 | JPN | Keiichio Nagashima | 70.040 |
7 | KAZ | Roman Krech | 70.048 |
8 | GER | Nico Ihle | 70.10 |
9 | POL | Arthur Was | 70.21 |
10 | CAN | Gilmore Junio | 70.25 |
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