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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow
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LeMay Doan leads, but Japanese skaters surprise field
 Japan's Tomomi Okazaki |
 Japan's Kyoko Shimazaki |
16:30- Start
Canada's taking of the top two places was no surprise. Japan's taking of the next two places was.
Catriona LeMay Doan shattered American Bonnie Blair's 10-year-old Olympic record by 0.71 second to take a slim lead in the women's 500-meter speed skating event Friday with another round of races to go on Saturday.
LeMay Doan looked sharp around the 400-meter track at the M-Wave indoor oval and posted a time of 38.39 seconds while compatriot and Lillehammer Olympic silver medalist Susan Auch is an eye's blink behind at 38.42 seconds.
But the post-race talk centered around Japan's Tomomi Okazaki and Kyoko Shimazaki, who took the third and fourth places and pushed Germany's Franziska Schenk and American Chris Witty -- both former world sprint champions -- down to fifth and sixth.
First came Shimazaki, who had the home crowd roaring about her Olympic record time of 38.75 seconds. Seven pairings later, Okazaki outdid that mark by posting a national record of 38.55.
''To be honest, I was surprised by the Japanese,'' said Derrick Auch, coach of the Canadian team and Susan Auch's older brother.
Another set of races, however, are on slate for Saturday and Witty pointed out that anything can happen among the top skaters.
''They could slip, they could fall, or they could do what I did, which was tighten up,'' Witty said.
Schenk, bronze medalist at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, skated 38.88 while Witty turned in a 39.09.
LeMay Doan, whose speed skating career has soared to unheard of heights this season thanks to slap skates, is under severe pressure to take home Canada's first-ever gold medal in the event.
The 27-year-old former ice hockey player from Saskatoon has set a world records in the 500 three times this winter -- first a 37.90, then 37.71 and later 37.55, all of them recorded at the Calgary Olympic Oval -- and has ruled this season's World Cup circuit with seven wins.
Smiling and talkative during a Canadian team news conference last week, LeMay Doan refused to talk with reporters after Friday's race. Auch followed suit.
Austrian Emese Hunyady, the reigning women's 1,500-meter Olympic champion, was disqualified for obstructing the path of her race partner during the crossing zone.
Like the men's 500 meters held earlier in the week, the women's event is being contested in two legs for the first time in the Olympics in Nagano in order to allow for a greater measure of fairness in the results.
Skaters starting from the inner track are said to have an advantage because they can move in a larger arc at higher speeds around the final bend. (Kyodo News)
Results of speed skating women's 500 meters after the first race Friday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at M-Wave indoor oval, Nagano:
1. Catriona Lemay-Doan, Canada 38.39 seconds (Olympic record)
2. Susan Auch, Canada 38.42
3. Tomomi Okazaki, Japan 38.55
4. Kyoko Shimazaki, Japan 38.75
5. Franziska Schenk, Germany 38.88
6. Christine Witty, U.S. 39.09
7. Svetlana Zhurova, Russia 39.11
7. Monique Garbrecht, Germany 39.11
9. Marianne Timmer, Netherlands 39.12
10. Sabine Voelker, Germany 39.19
11. Linda Johnson-Blair, Canada 39.24
12. Eriko Sammiya, Japan 39.25
13. Xue Ruihong, China 39.49
14. Shiho Kusunose, Japan 39.56
15. Andrea Nuyt, Netherlands 39.62
16. Anke Baier-Loef, Germany 39.73
17. Anzhelika Kotyuga, Belarus 39.76
18. Moira D'Andrea, U.S. 39.83
19. Yang Chunyuan, China 39.92
20. Sandra Zwolle, Netherlands 39.98
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22. Wang Manli, China 40.01
24. Choi Seung Yong, South Korea 40.17
30. Chun Hee Joo, South Korea 40.67
31. Kang Mi Young, South Korea 40.96
34. Kim Joo Hyun, South Korea 41.36
35. Kim Jong, North Korea 42.17
37. Jin Hua, China 1:04.07
No part of the article, photographs, or illustrations presented here may be printed or used without permission.
Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun