Euros: Wednesday Wrap - 1000 & Eliminations

The LONGEST day of racing after a day washed-out by rain (perhaps better not to mention that aloud in case the weather brings similar program changes to the Road events). It all started at 6:25am when teams had to wake skaters up to get down to the track for the 1000-metre heats.

Student & Teacher
Bill Begg (Coach of Swizterland) and Desly Hill (Netherlands) share a joke
Bill was Desly's coach through her World Championship career

The heats of the Thousand are run differently to the World Championships, and doubtlessly many countries' National Championships: Where at Worlds the qualification for this event is the Heat Winner plus X times, here at the European Championships it is the First 3 from each Heat that progress through. Plenty of room for tactical 'outpositioning' there, particularly in the Euro format where 3 skaters per Country can enter an event.

Sign?
Jannitta Spigt (NED) spends some time with the fans as she awaits the Road events

Six skaters contested the Women's final after a morning of tiring rounds: De Vries & Roosenboom from Netherlands, Falcone & Zanetti from Italy, and to round-out the 3-Nations showdown - Gegner & Berg from Germany. The final was controlled by the Dutch skaters and when the final sprint went on only Italian Nicoletta Falcone managed to get past defending Champion Elma De Vries in the final lap.

Fastest on track
Nicoletta Falcone debriefed by the Italian Coaching staff after her 1000m win

Meet the Press
Defending Champion and 2008 Silver Medallist in the 1000m Elma de Vries with a face-full of camera

1000 meter Silver
Elma de Vries claims silver to Nicoletta Falcone's (ITA) Gold

In the Men’s final, Alexis Contin from France lead out hard from the start for four of the five laps - running the race for teammate Thomas Boucher (2004 World 1000m Champion). Contin had to let Boucher pass to take the win in the final lap, having been told by the team that he was to skate for second place. The ice skater, currently trying to make his top-level comeback to inline, has not yet been assigned the throne in the French team where he once sat.

The final events of the morning were the Eliminations. With three skaters from each Country in the events here, particularly in the longer races there is a lot more fighting than many skaters may be used to seeing. Perhaps worth considering that officials too may perceive some of the fouling that takes place at the World Championships to be 'light' in comparison to what they see at Euros?

Bird's eye View
We're halfway there... calls to put Referees in high-up positions to watch elimination fouls have so-far got this Ref 2 meters off the ground.
Now, to get a Ref in the top of the grandstand...

It came down to the final two laps of the Elimination for the Men: Yann Guyader from France and Fabio Francolini from Italy raced out a spectacular finish, both going full-out for the European Title. It was Guyader who just edged out Francolini down the final straight, with Italian Francesco Zangarini in third some 20 meters behind.

Teams then made their way back to the hotels. The Dutch boys stayed at the hotel watching the Tour de France during the afternoon before coming back to the track for the Relay heats. The afternoon started with heats for the 500 meter.