KEARNS — Fourteen months ago, Catherine Raney's right elbow — the one she uses to swing as she rounds corners while speed skating — wasn't in top shape.
The avid bicyclist slipped on a patch of black ice in Calgary on her way to a training session and dislocated the elbow, ripping the tendons and other connective tissues from their rightful places as she crashed. She skated most of the 2004-05 season with the bum limb before finally having surgery to put things back together.
So, when the Wisconsin native powered her way around the Utah Olympic Oval Wednesday afternoon, she felt almost as if she was back to normal as she broke her own national record in the 3,000 meters at the U.S. Long Track Championships.
"I felt really good," said Raney, who was already qualified for the Torino Olympic Games. "It was an opportunity to go out on fast ice and 'What the heck, let's try to set a national record today.' "
Her time of 4 minutes, 1.98 seconds was easily the best mark of the day and trimmed 1.70 seconds off her previous American record. Boise's Kristine Holzer finished second at 4:10.79, while Maria Lamb was third at 4:12.47.
Raney trains in Canada because there are more top-level distance skaters there. And with her eye on winning a medal in Torino, she needs her competition, even in training, to be as strong as possible.
"We've got some good, young girls," she said. "I keep hoping they're going to get faster and then I can come home."
One person that may help that is West Jordan's Mia Manganello. The 16-year-old isn't quite ready to challenge Raney on the ice yet, but her time of 4:23.51 was good enough for sixth place.
"It's great experience to be able to skate with the Olympians," Manganello said. "I definitely have improved . . . and to see the timeboard and they're not that far ahead of me, I'm ecstatic."
Chris Witty won the first heat on the women's 1,000 with a time of 1:16.44. Amy Sannes and Elli Ochowicz also found their way to the
medals podium with times of 1:16.54 and 1:17.31, respectively. Witty's time was still almost two and a half seconds off her world-record pace set on the same ice during the 2002 Olympics.
In the men's 1,000, Nick Pearson narrowly beat Chad Hedrick by just one one-hundredth of a second.
The narrow defeat, however, didn't concern Hedrick much. The distance specialist said he uses the shorter races as training exercises primarily to develop a strong finishing sprint.
"I don't really train for this," Hedrick said. "But it was a personal best by a half second so I can't complain too much."
Hedrick followed up his 1,000 race by cruising to an easy victory in the 5,000 where his time of 6:16.10 was far and away the best mark of the day. Clay Mull was second at 6:29.61 while K.C. Boutiette finished third in 6:33.88.
E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com