North Shore News Daily Olympic Paper - Feb. 19, 2010

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U.S. golden in Men’s Figures Benjamin Alldritt

photo Chung Chow/Richmond News

Catch the Spirit.

Y o u r

Canada’s Christine Nesbitt leads Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands en route to a gold medal in the women’s 1,000-metre finals at the Richmond Oval Thursday.

Nesbitt powers to gold Benjamin Alldritt

balldritt@nsnews.com Canada’s female speed skaters continued to excel Thursday, with Christine Nesbitt winning gold in the 1,000-metres. Nesbitt was off the podium pace through the 200-metre and 600-metre splits, but poured it on in the finish to pip Dutch silver medallist Annette Gerritsen by two hundredths of a second. Laurine van Riessen, also of the Netherlands, won bronze. Only six hundredths of a second back from Van Riessen was Canada’s Kristina Groves, who won bronze in the 3,000-metre event on Sunday. Throw in Marianne St. Gelais’ 500metre short track silver and you have a very

successful start for Canada’s lightning ladies. Nesbitt, a 24-year-old from London, Ont., holds the track record at the Richmond Olympic Oval and has won all four World Cup races at 1,000 metres. But her slow start seemed to have opened the door for the Dutch women. “Today, really I didn’t have a great race, physically,” she told reporters after leaving the ice. “I could feel I wasn’t skating well. But I just kept going until the end and it paid off.” Nesbitt and Groves will both race in the 1,500-metres on Sunday, Feb. 21, and Groves will also vie for the 5,000-metre title on Wednesday, Feb. 24. Canada’s Shannon Rempel finished 21st on Thursday and Brittany Schussler placed 25th.

balldritt@nsnews.com American figure skater Evan Lysacek upset Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia to win gold in men’s figure skating. Lysacek was close on the Russian’s heels after Tuesday’s short program. At the Pacific Coliseum on Thursday, Plushenko produced his trademark series of powerful jumps, but the judges preferred Lysacek’s wellrounded artistic performance. Lysacek did not attempt any of the quadruple elements once thought to be a gold medal requirement. Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi took bronze. Canada’s 19-year-old phenom Patrick Chan finished fifth after falling on one triple axel and labouring his landing on other elements. The Americans were strong in women’s halfpipe snowboarding, claiming silver and bronze with Hannah Teeter and Kelly Clark. But the gold medal run was from Australian Torah Bright. Mercedes Nicoll, born in North Vancouver before moving to Whistler, placed sixth, putting down a strong first run in the finals before falling on her second. “That was my best score ever,” Nicoll said. Thursday was also a three-medal day for Norway,

See Canadian page 5

medal rankings 1 United States

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2 Germany

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Canada vs. U.S. a hot ticket A Vancouver man is suing a ticket broker for $60,000 after his hockey ticket purchase failed to go through, according to the Province newspaper. In his claim to B.C. Supreme Court, Patrick O’Brien said that he bought tickets to Sunday’s Canada-U.S. hockey game for $4,600 from AllStar Tickets Inc., only to find later that the tickets were sold to someone else. AllStar claims that O’Brien failed to sign the necessary paperwork in time to complete the purchase.

Too hot for one stage URP Event Production and Theatrical Services is stage managing the Spirit Square entertainment site in West Vancouver. The company has also choreographed a 12-minute dance and entertainment number that incorporates the entire site. See story page 3.

West Vancouver Community Centre

Spirit Square an official 2010 Celebration site Enjoy Live Music & Performance Explore Sport, Space, & Art we s tva n co uve r 2 0 1 0 . c a