Brian Hansen competing in the Division A 1000m on day two of the Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium on November 17, 2012 in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Brian Hansen earned a bronze medal at 1,500 meters with a time of 1:46.14 Sunday at the Essent ISU Long Track World Cup in Inzell, Germany.
“I’m happy and surprised with the results from today,” Hansen said. “No Dutch on the podium is always a strange thing. It looks like every country is stepping it up leading into Sochi for this season’s World Single Distance Championships.”
Shani Davis (men’s 1500), Patrick Meek (men’s Mass Start) and Maria Lamb (women’s 3000) were each 10th Sunday.
Anna Ringsred finished fifth in the women’s 1,500 Saturday. Lamb was eighth in the women’s mass start and Paul Dyrud was 10th in the men’s 1,500.
The Essent ISU Long Track World AllRound Championships are set for Feb. 16-17 in Hamar, Norway.
Meanwhile, in short track speedskating action, J.R. Celski skated to a silver medal Saturday by finishing the men’s 1,500 meters in 2:13.195 at the Short Track World Cup in Dresden, Germany. The medal marked Celski’s seventh medal of the World Cup season.
Jessica Smith was fifth in the women’s 1,500. The men’s 5,000-meter relay was sixth and the men’s 1,500 was seventh Sunday.
Kyle Carr took second in the B final at 1,500 meters, Celski was third in the men’s 500 B final and Lana Gehring was third in the women’s 1,500 B final.
SKI JUMPING
Dangerous winds caused multiple restarts during the weekend and an eventual postponement of competition Saturday at the FIS World Cup Ski Jumping competition for women in Zao, Japan. When the pair of events concluded Sunday, Sarah Hendrickson led a strong U.S. effort, placing third in one event and fourth in the other. The United States had three jumpers in the top eight in each competition.
“There have been a lot of delays during the past days and we did not know how the weather would look like today,” Hendrickson said. “(It’s) nice to see that everything worked out well and that conditions were so fine.”
Jessica Jerome was fifth and sixth. Lindsey Van was seventh and eighth.
ALPINE SKIING
Julia Mancuso was fifth and Stacey Cook sixth Sunday in the women’s downhill at the FIS World Championships in Schladming, Austria. Mancuso, who earned a bronze in the super-G earlier in the week, missed a second medal by .15 seconds.
Lindsey Vonn, who underwent what is being described as successful knee surgery Sunday following a season-ending injury, continues to rank first in the World Cup season point standings. Cook is second, Alice McKennis is fourth and Leanne Smith is sixth.
Olympic medalist Andrew Weibrecht was 22nd to lead the U.S. men in Saturday’s downhill. Ted Ligety is among the favorites in the men’s super combined, which is scheduled for Monday. He already won the super-G gold Wednesday when the event opened.
The championships continue through Feb. 17.
LUGE
Julia Clukey, a 2010 Olympian, earned a women’s singles silver medal Friday and then led off the silver-medal-winning relay Saturday at the World Cup event in Lake Placid, N.Y. Her finish Friday marked her first World Cup medal. Chris Mazdzer handled the men’s singles leg and Matt Mortensen and Preston Griffall raced in men’s doubles. The United States finished in the top three in all three categories.
“To all come together as a team and perform our best and get the silver medal is huge,” Clukey said. “We’ve had some heartbreaking team relays. We’ve missed the podium by less than 0.02 of a second for the past two consecutive team relays.”
Mazdzer was fifth in men’s singles Saturday. Mortensen and Griffall took sixth in doubles Friday.
FIGURE SKATING
The United States had three of the top four ice dancing teams at the Four Continents Championships this weekend in Osaka, Japan. Meryl Davis and Charlie White won their third Four Continents Championships ice dancing gold medal and their fifth overall medal in the event, while Madison Chock and Evan Bates earned bronze and Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani finished fourth.
The other podium finish for U.S. skaters came in pairs, where Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir finished third.
Max Aaron had the second-best free skate to finish fourth in his senior international debut. The U.S. champion had placed 10th in the short program. Richard Dornbush finished in fifth and Ross Miner, the U.S. silver medalist who will join Aaron at the world championships next month in London, Ont., was ninth.
In the women’s competition, Christina Gao was fourth and Gracie Gold sixth. Agnes Zawadzki placed eighth.
BIATHLON
Lowell Bailey finished 13th in the men’s 12.5k pursuit to lead the United States Sunday at the IBU World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
Among other U.S. finishers: Susan Dunklee finished 47th to lead U.S. women in the 10k pursuit; Tim Burke led the way Saturday with a tie for 28th in the men’s 10k sprint; and Annelies Cook led the U.S. women, placing 45th in the women’s 7.5k sprint.
The women’s 15k individual is scheduled for Monday in the championships, which continue through Feb. 17.
Etc.
SOCCER: Christen Press was named Budweiser Woman of the Match after scoring twice in the first 32 minutes of her U.S. Women’s National Team debut in a 4-1 win over Scotland Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla. Coach Tom Sermanni also made his debut in the team’s first game of the year. Shannon Boxx and Sydney Leroux also scored to keep the team unbeaten in 24 games. Midfielder Kristie Mewis and defender Julie Johnson also made their debuts in the game. Alex Morgan left in the game in the first half with a minor ankle injury. The teams meet again Wednesday in Nashville.
GYMNASTICS: Jake Dalton had the best second-day effort to win the all-around title Saturday at the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas. Dalton, a 2012 Olympian, beat second-place Adrian de los Angeles and third-place Danell Leyva. Dalton also won the floor exercise and still rings. Leyva, the 2012 Olympic all-around bronze medalist, won the parallel bars and high bar. Michael Newburger won the pommel horse and Eddie Penev the vault. Following the competition, de los Angeles, Paul Ruggeri, Sean Melton, Akash Modi, Brandon Wynn, Glen Ishino and Penev were named to the national team along with the eight members of the 2012 Olympic Team, who automatically retained their spots.
TABLE TENNIS: Lily Zhang, a 2012 Olympian, went 11-0 to finish first at the U.S. National Team Trials Thursday through Sunday in San Jose, Calif. Erica Wu, Ariel Hsing and Prachi Jha finished second through fourth to also guarantee themselves spots on the five-player women’s team. Timothy Wang finished first among the men. Yahao Zhang, Khoa Dinh Nguyen and Peter Li also secured spots on the team.
CURLING: The National Championships, which began Saturday in Green Bay, Wis., will continue through Feb. 16. Spots in the World Championships and the 2014 U.S. Olympic Trials will be decided at the event.
ICE HOCKEY: Evan Allen’s overtime goal Sunday lifted the U.S. National Under-18 Team to a 3-2 win over Sweden in the final game of the Five Nations Tournament in Jonkoping, Sweden. The United States finished fourth with two wins, including the overtime victory, and two losses. Evan Cowley made 21 saves Sunday and led all goaltenders in the tournament with a 2.33 goals against average. Elsewhere, Blake Weyrick made 24 saves to lift the U.S. National Under-17 Team to a 5-1 victory over Finland Sunday in the finale of the Five Nations Tournament in Jarvenpaa, Finland. The United States had two wins and two losses, including one in overtime, to finish third.
RUGBY: The U.S. men went 1-4 in the IRB Sevens World Series event in Las Vegas. The only win came 22-7 over Spain Saturday.
CYCLING: Elizabeth Newell won a gold medal in the 10-kilometer scratch race Friday at the Pan American Continental Track Championships. Madalyn Godby set her second unofficial national record and picked up her second bronze medal of the week with her finish in the 200-meter flying start time trial. Missy Erickson was fourth in the same event.
FENCING: Daryl Homer finished sixth at the Madrid Saber World Cup Saturday. Elsewhere, the United States picked up three medals Friday, building its total to five at the Junior and Cadet Pan American Championships. Sisters Emma and Sophie Keehan finished second and third in junior saber. Jessenia Zambrano was second in the junior women’s foil. Earlier in the week, Caira Moreira-Brown and David Hadler won gold medals in cadet women’s epee and cadet men’s foil.
Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc. Tom Robinson is a freelance contributor for TeamUSA.org. Material from various news services and press releases from National Governing Bodies was used to compile this report. This story was not subject to the approval of any National Governing Bodies.