Reflections from Sofia

The World Team Championships through a skater's eyes.

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by Torrie Hansen

10 April 2003   |   We try to report the news for competitions as best we can, but when we can't actually attend the event, this becomes difficult. We got lucky with the World Team Championships, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Skater Assen Pandov, agreed to help us out by acting as our "on-site reporter" for the event.

Assen did not compete at the World Teams as he is recovering from a nasty injury. However, he seemed happy to be there watching and supporting his team-mates.

WST: Were there many people there watching this event? What was the crowd like?
Assen: No. It was a very small crowd. The seats were almost empty.

According to skaters, how were the ice conditions?
The ice conditions weren't good. The ice was too soft and water was too much.

To you, what was the most exciting race?
For me the most exciting race was the men's final relay. All 3 teams (Canada, Korea, China) were together at the last 2 laps and when the Koreans tried to pass the Canadians, Jiajun Li went inside Korean (Ahn) and pushed him a little. Ahn went out and China was DQ'd and Canada stayed 1st!

Italian Ladies - 3rd Place

Were there any surprises at this competition? For me it had to be the Italian ladies beating the Canadians!
Yes, that was the biggest surprise, Italian ladies beat Canadians.

What was the biggest crash?
Maybe the crash on the 3000m when [Michele] Antonioli and Rusty [Smith] fell, because they almost cut each other. I'm not sure who was guilty, but Rusty was furious.

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