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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow
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LeMay Doan grabs gold, Okazaki wins 500m skate bronze
 Japan's Tomomi Okazaki took the bronze |
16:30- Start
Catriona LeMay Doan sprinted into the record books Saturday leading a 1-2 finish for Canada in the women's 500-meter speed skating event and taking home her country's first-ever Olympic women's gold medal in the sport.
Tomomi Okazaki, meanwhile, became the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic medal in this event by posting the third-fastest composite time over two races to earn the bronze.
The final race of the day pitted fellow Canadians world record holder LeMay Doan and Susan Auch side-by-side and they put on a dramatic show for the roaring crowd of 10,000 at the M-Wave Olympic indoor oval.
Auch, who trailed LeMay Doan by a mere 0.03 second after Friday's races, had a faster split-time at the 100-meter mark but LeMay Doan took command around the final bend and powered home for victory.
''Being paired together, I knew she would have a good start and she did,'' LeMay Doan said of Auch. ''But I knew down the backstraight that if I relied on long and powerful strides, I pretty much thought I could win the race.''
LeMay Doan rounded the track in an Olympic record time of 38.21 seconds and finished with a two-race total of 1 minute, 16.60 seconds.
Auch clocked 38.51 for a 1:16.93 total and won her second straight Olympic silver in this distance.
''It feels just great and I'm really proud. It felt great to see Canada do 1-2 and to see two Canadian flags go up,'' LeMay Doan said.
LeMay Doan suffered an embarrassing fall in this event at the Lillehammer Olympics four years ago, but this time arrived in Nagano as the overwhelming favorite.
The reason was the slap skates whose hinge-like mechanism gave a tremendous advantage particularly to those skaters who make a big push at the end of their stride.
LeMay Doan was one such skater. The 27-year-old from Saskatoon won five of six World Cup 500-meter races held so far this season and rewrote the world record three times in the space of a month.
It was Canada's third Olympic gold medal -- men's or women's -- in the history of the sport. Gaetan Boucher won the men's 1,000 and 1,500-meter races at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics.
Okazaki raced against fellow compatriot kyoko Shimazaki in the penultimate pairing and controlled the pace throughout. Okazaki posted 38.55 seconds, matching her national record time on Friday, for a total of 1:17.10.
''I dreamed of winning a medal, but I never thought that I had any realistic chance,'' grinned Okazaki, whose tinted brown hair appeared to coordinate with the color of her medal.
Germany's world sprint champion Franziska Schenk finished fourth overall in 1:17.45 while Shimazaki was fifth in 1:17.68.
For the first time in the Olympics, two races were held for both the men's and women's 500 meters to provide fairer racing conditions and more consistency in the results. (Kyodo News)
Final results of speed skating women's 500 meters Saturday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at M-Wave indoor oval, Nagano:
1. Catriona LeMay-Doan, Canada 1 minute, 16.60 seconds (first run 38.39, second run 38.21 Olympic record)
2. Susan Auch, Canada 1:16.93 (38.42, 38.51)
3. Tomomi Okazaki, Japan 1:17.10 (38.55, 38.55)
4. Franziska Schenk, Germany 1:17.45 (38.88, 38.57)
5. Kyoko Shimazaki, Japan 1:17.68 (38.75, 38.93)
6. Marianne Timmer, Netherlands 1:18.15 (39.12, 39.03)
7. Sabine Voelker, Germany 1:18.19 (39.19, 39.00)
8. Monique Garbrecht, Germany 1:18.45 (39.11, 39.34)
9. Svetlana Zhurova, Russia 1:18.49 (39.11, 39.38)
10. Christine Witty, U.S. 1:18.53 (39.09, 39.44)
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11. Eriko Sammiya, Japan 1:18.56 (39.25, 39.31)
12. Shiho Kusunose, Japan 1:18.80 (39.56, 39.24)
14. Xue Ruihong, China 1:19.02 (39.49, 39.53)
22. Wang Manli, China 1:20.07 (40.01, 40.06)
23. Yang Chunyuan, China 1:20.16 (39.92, 40.24)
24. Choi Seung Yong, South Korea 1:20.79 (40.17, 40.62)
29. Chun Hee Joo, South Korea 1:21.62 (40.67, 40.95)
30. Kang Mi Young, South Korea 1:22.25 (40.96, 41.29)
33. Kim Joo Hyun, South Korea 1:22.79 (41.36, 41.43)
35. Kim Jong, North Korea 1:23.74 (42.17, 41.57)
36. Jin Hua, China 1:44.39 (1:04.07, 40.32)
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Copyright 1999 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun