MONTREAL, Canada -- Apolo Anton Ohno, 16, became the first
American man to win a Junior World Championships when he took the overalltitle last weekend.
In the process, the Seattle teen also broke the Junior World record in the 1,500 meters, lowering the record twice.
Bonnie Blair (Cruikshank), a senior World Short Track Champion, is the only other American to win a world title in short track.
Ohno took the speedskating world by storm as a 13 year-old when he became the youngest person ever to join the short track resident team. Since then, it has been a string of "first and youngest ever."
He was the youngest U.S. Short Track Champion in 1997, winning the title at only 15 years old. He also became the youngest person to win a gold medal in short track World Cup competition when he won a gold this season in the 1000m.
Now, he is the youngest person ever to win the Junior World Championship title.
"I felt confident and strong, mentally and physically," said Ohno. "I was just going to win, going for number one, and nothing else."
While he swept the events on Sunday, the final day of the competition, the end of the first day had the title up for grabs. Ohno won the 1000m, and then was disqualified for a pass he made on the last turn of the race.
In the 500m, he came in second barely a tenth of a second behind last year's champion, Canadian Francois-Louis Tremblay, who set a blistering pace and a World record of 42.568.
In the 1500m super-final, a final race that consists of the top-six
competitors after three races (1500m, 1000m, 500m), Ohno lowered the junior
World record he had set yesterday of 2:19.267 to 2:18.900.
This is the third record Ohno has broken this season. He is the American
record holder in the 500m, and the junior World record holder in the 1500m and
the 3000m.
All three men placed in the top eight, with Ohno in first, Rusty Smith (Sunset Beach, Calif.) in fifth and Daniel Weinstein (Brookline, Mass.) in eighth.
"I knew we had it in us," said head coach Pat Wentland, "and it could have
been any of the three guys that could have won this race. It was nice that we
finally got a title."
The women had their strongest finishes from Julie Goskowicz, who finished
fourth in the 1500m. She came back from a compressed vertebrae that took her
out most of the first half of the season to come in second in the U.S. Junior
Short Track Championships and seventh overall at the Junior World
Championships.
Goskowicz will also be on the Winter World University Games Team that competes in Slovakia from Jan. 26-28, 1999.
Brigid Farrell and Sarah Williams, the pair from Saratoga Springs, N.Y.,
finished ninth and 22nd overall. Williams had her best finish in the 500m,
where she advanced to the finals and finished sixth.