Long-track speedskating woes continue for the U.S. men
GANGNEUNG, South Korea – Joey Mantia, Emery Lehman and Brian Hansen had a good plan for men’s team pursuit. They executed it to the best of their ability.
Physically, though, they were off just a bit.
And being a bit off in a race against some of the fastest long-track speed- skaters in the world won’t get it done.
Going head-to-head against the Netherlands in the fourth quarterfinal Sunday at the Gangneung Oval, the Americans fell off the pace in the middle laps and couldn’t recover, finishing with the slowest time among the eight teams.
The four fastest teams – South Korea, the Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand – advanced to the semifinals
Wednesday. The U.S. will skate in the D Final against Canada and the best they can finish is seventh.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” said Lehman, a Chicago native who trains at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee and is a student at Marquette University. “You just gotta put it behind you just like anything in life, like a bad test in school or whatever happens in your life.”
Because they skated in the last quarterfinal, the Americans knew exactly what lap times they would need in order to move on to the semifinals but couldn’t get it done, despite skating their fastest sea-level time of the year: 3 minutes, 42.98 seconds. Korea was fastest at 3:39.29.
“It’s a little bittersweet because on the one hand it’s our fastest time of the year,” Lehman said. “But on the other hand, we probably could have executed it better and gotten a much better time. ... Had we been at our best, I really don’t know what the exact result would have been, but it definitely would have been a little faster than what we did.”
The Americans’ goal now is to salvage seventh place.
“I don’t know,” said Hansen, a native of Glenview, Ill., who also has trained extensively at the Pettit Center. “I guess just treat it as another Olympic race, even though it’s not a medal race anymore.”
The women’s 500 meters also was held Sunday and Brittany Bowe of Ocala, Fla., skated her fastest-ever time at sea level and finished fifth.
It was her third top-five finish in three races at the Pyeongchang Games; she also finished fourth in the 1,000, missing the podium by .38 of a second, and was fifth in the 1,500.
Nao Kodaira of Japan won the gold medal in an Olympic-record time of 36.94 seconds. Sang-hwa Lee of Korea took the silver in 37.33 and Karolina Erbanova of the Czech Republic took the bronze in 37.34.
Bowe crossed the line in 37.53. “Other than being two-tenths off the podium, I’m really happy with that race,” she said.
“I can’t think of anything I could have executed better, to be honest with you.”
Heather Bergsma of High Point, N.C., who trains in the Netherlands with her husband, Jorrit Bergsma, finished 11th in 38.13 and first-time Olympian Erin Jackson of Ocala was 24th in 39.20.