J.R. Celski (Federal Way, WA) reached the finals in the boys’ 500m race. After recovering from a fall with two laps to go, Celski kept his composure and secured himself a spot atop the awards podium with a third place finish.

“He skated great today,” U.S. Speedskating coach Adam Riedy said of Celski’s performance. “He skated extremely smart every race and earned everything he got today. As he advanced through every round, he gained more confidence, which showed in the following rounds.”

Jeff Simon (Newport Beach, CA) reached the semi-finals in the 500m. He finished third in his semi-final heat..

Ryan Bedford (Midland, MI) was eliminated in his quarterfinal heat.

On the girls’ side, Carly Wilson (Jefferson City, MO) reached the semi-finals in the 500m. She finished fourth in her heat and was unable to advance to the finals.

Katherine Reutter (Champaign, IL) had a stroke of unfortunate luck when she fell in her 500m heats.

Lana Gehring (Glenview, IL) also fell. Her incident took place during her preliminaries heats with three laps to go.

With Celski taking a bronze medal in the 500m, the U.S. boys finished in the top 15. Simon finished sixth and Beford 14th.

”To have all three of our junior guys in the top 15 shows great promise for our future as these athletes grow and mature,” Riedy said.

Wilson finished 8th in the 500m with teammates Reutter finishing 31st and Gehring 33rd.

Overall in the competition, Celski is ranked seventh with Simon at 17th and Bedford at 23rd.

Wilson is 16th overall in the competition on the girls’ side with Ruetter following behind in 33rd place and Gehring in 46th.

RESULTS (editor’s note: at the time of posting this release, the full results and times were not available online at http://www.cyberscoreboard.com/interlynx/index.asp?SUBSPORTID=5&VIEW=RESULTS&SCOPE=0&EVENTID=8646&ACTIVITYID=9254&HEATID=9999&SUMMARY=1&HEATCODE=352_415_8646_9254_9999. Once they become available, they will be posted at www.usspeedsakting.)