Hamelin Grab’s Gold

Some thought it was impossible, but Canadian Short Track Speed Skater Charles Hamelin put another Gold to his resume in Sochi at the 2014 Winter Olympics’.

Hamelin went wide on the straightaway, then managed to cut inside on a turn to move from third to first.

Each skater have a planned strategy and they try to stick to it, but it can change from turn to turn, but this race was his from his from the start.

Risks are taken, especially jumping out in front early in the race, but  “They wanted to keep their place and there was movement behind me,” and listening to CBC sports that is what Charles Hamelin told CBC’s Scott Russell after his big win. He mentioned “I decided to pass and go back to first.”

In staying out in front it allowed the other skaters to get a draft off him, but on the bell lap he excelled from the corner and when it was over he went to his Coach and Dad, then went on to give his girlfriend Marianne St-Gelais the photo shot they wanted when he first kissed her at the Coliseum in Vancouver.

“They wanted to keep their place and there was movement behind me,” Charles Hamelin told CBC’s Scott Russell after his big win. “I decided to pass and go back to first.”

In a move that saw him hold off his competitors, he finished with a time of two minutes, 14.985 seconds, narrowly edging out China’s Han Tianyu.

Since the win in Vancouver he was focused and had his sights on gold and he mentioned to the media “We always said in the last few years that it was our weakness, but I really worked hard to prove everyone wrong and I think today was the day.”

Han finished just behind Hamelin to take the silver for China.

“It’s my first Olympic Winter Games, I’m a little bit nervous,” Han said. “I didn’t think very much. I never thought I could make it to the finals, let alone stand on the podium. I took every round as my final, and tried my best to compete.”

Viktor Ahn, who was born in South Korea but was skating for Russia, earned the bronze, giving Russia its first-ever short-track medal.

“That guy is always there  in the 1,500-metre,” Hamelin said of Ahn. “I knew I had to have the best energy at the end because he will have a lot of energy.”

The 2010 Bronze Medallist from Vancouver, American J.R. Celski, finished fourth