Press Release
No forklifts around, Hewitt's flying; Kamloops skater helps push Canadian relay team into 3,000-metre final
The Vancouver Province
Sun 26 Oct 2008
Page: A80
Section: Sports
Byline: Marc Weber
Source: The Province
Away from the ice, Jessica Hewitt doesn't always have her wits about her. On it, though, she's proving quite alert.
Just two weeks past her 22nd birthday and competing in only her second short track speed skating World Cup, Hewitt is showing she could be back at the Pacific Coliseum come the Winter Olympics in 2010.
In front of a modest but boisterous hometown crowd Saturday at the Samsung ISU World Cup, the Kamloops-raised racer helped Canada clip the U.S. to qualify for today's women's 3,000-metre relay final. She also skated a gutsy 1,500m semifinal heat, jumping briefly into the lead against two of the world's best before finishing fourth.
A week ago, at the World Cup opener in Salt Lake City, she was just trying not to get scooped up, or worse, impaled, by a forklift.
"I listen to my music really loudly and everybody makes fun of me because I never hear anybody when my music is on," said Hewitt, who was rocking out to her iPod on a Salt Lake street. "I guess there was a forklift backing up and it was beeping and I didn't know.
"It wasn't like Austin Powers or anything," she added, referencing the movie scene where a steamroller flattens a slow-reacting guard.
Her reaction time in the relay, where there are numerous crucial exchanges -- basically pushes -- was anything but slow. She ended up skating the last two laps, too, as Canada edged the Americans by 6/100ths of a second.
"I knew if I nailed that last exchange we'd be in the running to qualify for the final," she said. "I just tried my hardest and it was really exciting. I couldn't really hear because it was so loud."
Her individual races have been a positive experience also, despite a pair of disqualifications. Following on the heels of Friday's DQ for "impeding" in the 1,000m, she was DQ'd in the 1,500m Saturday. Yet she thrilled the crowd with an aggressive early slingshot move that took her from last to first. She settled into second place for much of the race before falling back to fourth when world record holder Yang Zhou of China and Olympic medal contender Eun-Ju Jung of Korea pulled away.
"I just felt like I wanted to take control of it early, move up sooner before it gets too fast," said Hewitt, who is based out of Calgary. "It was a good experience."
The race of the afternoon was the men's 1,000m 'A' final, and not just because it was won by a Canadian, Charles Hamelin of Levis, Que. It had speed and strategy, contact and controversy -- all the sport's best bits in one dramatic race.
Hamelin battled back from a bodycheck that left him third and made an exciting final-lap pass on American Apolo Ohno, whom he'd bumped with twice during the race.
Ohno thought Hamelin should be DQ'd, but it was Ohno who got nabbed for "cross-tracking."
"I was inside, he tried to pass outside and I kept my track," Hamelin said of their first dust up. "He ran into me twice."
Hamelin, whose younger brother Francois earned bronze after the DQ, is one of Canada's top medal hopefuls for 2010. He was part of the silver-medal winning 5,000m relay team at the 2006 Turin Olympics and finished fourth there in the 1,500m.
South Korea has five medals, including a gold, while China has three, and Canada and the U.S. two.
No forklifts around, Hewitt's flying; Kamloops skater helps push Canadian relay team into 3,000-metre final
The Vancouver Province
Sun 26 Oct 2008
Page: A80
Section: Sports
Byline: Marc Weber
Source: The Province
Away from the ice, Jessica Hewitt doesn't always have her wits about her. On it, though, she's proving quite alert.
Just two weeks past her 22nd birthday and competing in only her second short track speed skating World Cup, Hewitt is showing she could be back at the Pacific Coliseum come the Winter Olympics in 2010.
In front of a modest but boisterous hometown crowd Saturday at the Samsung ISU World Cup, the Kamloops-raised racer helped Canada clip the U.S. to qualify for today's women's 3,000-metre relay final. She also skated a gutsy 1,500m semifinal heat, jumping briefly into the lead against two of the world's best before finishing fourth.
A week ago, at the World Cup opener in Salt Lake City, she was just trying not to get scooped up, or worse, impaled, by a forklift.
"I listen to my music really loudly and everybody makes fun of me because I never hear anybody when my music is on," said Hewitt, who was rocking out to her iPod on a Salt Lake street. "I guess there was a forklift backing up and it was beeping and I didn't know.
"It wasn't like Austin Powers or anything," she added, referencing the movie scene where a steamroller flattens a slow-reacting guard.
Her reaction time in the relay, where there are numerous crucial exchanges -- basically pushes -- was anything but slow. She ended up skating the last two laps, too, as Canada edged the Americans by 6/100ths of a second.
"I knew if I nailed that last exchange we'd be in the running to qualify for the final," she said. "I just tried my hardest and it was really exciting. I couldn't really hear because it was so loud."
Her individual races have been a positive experience also, despite a pair of disqualifications. Following on the heels of Friday's DQ for "impeding" in the 1,000m, she was DQ'd in the 1,500m Saturday. Yet she thrilled the crowd with an aggressive early slingshot move that took her from last to first. She settled into second place for much of the race before falling back to fourth when world record holder Yang Zhou of China and Olympic medal contender Eun-Ju Jung of Korea pulled away.
"I just felt like I wanted to take control of it early, move up sooner before it gets too fast," said Hewitt, who is based out of Calgary. "It was a good experience."
The race of the afternoon was the men's 1,000m 'A' final, and not just because it was won by a Canadian, Charles Hamelin of Levis, Que. It had speed and strategy, contact and controversy -- all the sport's best bits in one dramatic race.
Hamelin battled back from a bodycheck that left him third and made an exciting final-lap pass on American Apolo Ohno, whom he'd bumped with twice during the race.
Ohno thought Hamelin should be DQ'd, but it was Ohno who got nabbed for "cross-tracking."
"I was inside, he tried to pass outside and I kept my track," Hamelin said of their first dust up. "He ran into me twice."
Hamelin, whose younger brother Francois earned bronze after the DQ, is one of Canada's top medal hopefuls for 2010. He was part of the silver-medal winning 5,000m relay team at the 2006 Turin Olympics and finished fourth there in the 1,500m.
South Korea has five medals, including a gold, while China has three, and Canada and the U.S. two.