´The word 'elimination' sounds harsh and so the elimination races are!. Surprize after surprize continued to bring the crowd to their feet. The Junior Ladies, 15,000m final, which translates to 75 laps passed quickly, unlike the heats, which seemed to go on forever under the hot afternoon sun. The girls showed fitness and smarts as they manourvered back in the pack. The lead hardly changed from the US girls leading Colombia. Due to a high number of girls dropping out before the elimination laps, the bell did not toll much in this race. Instead the announcers, in Italian, English and Spanish called to inform the girls that they did not have to race each other to the line, but to continue lapping instead. With 5 laps to go the Colombian girls took off, and were not charged with the usual assults. So Carolina and Vanessa skated as they do in training together to the finsh line, grabbed their flag and began celebrating long before the race was officially over. Chae Yi kuck of South Korea took 3rd place. Not unnoticed was Nicole Begg of NZ who was unlucky to be eliminated befoer the finlal laps. It is a struggle when you do not have a country-man to help you in these long races.

Junior Men 15,000m this final showed the strength of our sport. With so many tallented up- and-coming skaters that were witnessed here tonight I feel the sport is strong and healthy. Moreover we could see that Colombia, whose officials had been complaining that they did not have the strength and depth of skaters that they wanted and needed, were again able to fly their flag between 2 skaters when the race was run! Andreas Munoz and Jose Luis Cifuentas were confident they had the race ín the bag´when almost from nowhere Italy´s Claudio Naselli came to the front right on the finish line to grab the gold.

Senior Ladies 15,000m Triumphant celebrations and flag flying were done just a tiny bit too early for Jessica Smith and Julie Glass as the announcer took the smiles from their faces telling the crowd that Colombia had snatched the gold in a photo finish. Perhaps it was her lack of stature, but Colombia´s Brigette again showed her style and speed as she climbed the dias via the bronze winners´ podium, as she was too small to climb straight up to the top. but take gold, she did, with her team skate, Alexandra Vivas an intregal part of her win, taking 4th place.