We have a packed day today, the plan is to go and watch some ice hockey before going to the IBC for the speed and then on to the Palavela for the start of the ladies.

Well after a smashing breakfast smashed eggs (I cant bring myself to say it!) I got the 11:30 bus to the Olympic Arena, the Ice Hockey stadium is right next door to where the opening ceremony took place. We went to watch the Italians take on Switzerland, Italy are already knocked out so this was there last match and as you can imagine they played with plenty of heart. We intended to watch one period but it was so good we stayed for the second, I would have liked to stay for the entire game because it was a cracker, but speed skating beckoned. Simon was late so I had to wait for him before going in. This is a shot of the outside of the arena, it is quite amazing, it doesn’t look much from the outside but we were amazed when we went in, Its one of the best arenas that I have ever seen.

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Here are a couple of shots of the game:

Well after the excitement of the hockey we had a mad dash to the IBC to prepare for the Speed Skating. It was the mens 1500 meters and was going to be a great race. When I arrived at the Eurosport office I sat down to do my preparation and would you believe it the computers crashed! I had a program in just over an hour and couldn’t get any information. As you can imagine my palms started to sweat and the pulse rate began to rise. Thankfully it was only a glip and they soon sorted themselves out.

What a race it was, the winner was Enrico Fabris from Italy, what an atmosphere. It has been a fantastic Olympics for the Italian Speed skaters, Enrico has won two gold medals now and a bronze. The silver and bronze went to Shani Davis and Chad Hedryk who are still not talking to each other! Enrico went off before the two Americans and on a normal day they would have been able to beat his time, but hey ho we all know that the Olympics doesn’t provide normal days!

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Well I had a leisurely stroll to the ice arena for the ladies short, I was really looking forward to this. About half an hour before we went on air, Simon said I have not had time to get any internet questions, so off I went again. A mad dash to the press room (I cant get online at the commentary position) and a quick scan through the nearly 600 postings we now have on our message board. I watched Kimie on the monitor, she skated great. Back to the commentary position, on with the headphones and away we go!

What a fantastic competition, the ladies really put the men to shame. I really enjoyed the excitement of the evening and to have the top three girls so close is just perfect for the free.

 

It was back to the village on the bus and a couple of glasses of wine as a night cap! I think we must be good customers because the girl behind the bar bought us over some free pieces of Pizza, either that or she has taken a shine to us but I think it is the former!! Thought you might like to see what the kiss and cry looks like from where I am sitting.

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Here are the standings after the short:

Ladies' Short Program

	Athlete	Country	Score
1	Sasha Cohen	USA	66.73*
2	Irina Slutskaya	RUS	66.70*
3	Shizuka Arakawa	JPN	66.02*
4	Fumie Suguri	JPN	61.75*
5	Kimmie Meissner	USA	59.40*
6	Elene Gedevanishvili	GEO	57.90*
7	Emily Hughes	USA	57.08*
8	Miki Ando	JPN	56.00*
9	Joannie Rochette	CAN	55.85*
10	Sarah Meier	SUI	55.57*
11	Carolina Kostner	ITA	53.77*
12	Susanna Poykio	FIN	53.74*
13	Elena Liashenko	UKR	52.35*
14	Mira Leung	CAN	50.61*
15	Yan Liu	CHN	49.84*
16	Julia Sebestyen	HUN	49.58*
17	Idora Hegel	CRO	47.06*
18	Elena Sokolova	RUS	46.69*
19	Viktoria Pavuk	HUN	46.40*
20	Kiira Korpi	FIN	44.84*
21	Fleur Maxwell	LUX	44.53*
22	Tugba Karademir	TUR	44.20*
23	Silvia Fontana	ITA	42.47*
24	Galina Efremenko	UKR	41.25*
25	Joanne Carter	AUS	40.86
26	Roxana Luca	ROM	39.37
27	Yong Suk Kim	PRK	39.16
28	Elena Glebova	EST	38.47
29	Anastasia Gimazetdinova	UZB	38.44

 

 

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