Juniors Kelly Gunther and Jono Gorman have the same understanding - fourth place stinks, but both of these juniors showed excellent racing style and endurance.  They gave the 15000m elimination everything that they had 75 laps of amazing racing.  Anyone who attends the World Championships cannot help but understand the draw of this sport.   

The best of the best are giving us the most exciting racing on this globe!  The Junior women, Brittany Bowe and Kelly Gunther were more deliberate and studied during their race.  They skated together and led for 72 laps.  Stuck right behind them in 3rd and 4th were the Columbians. This is a typical spot for the wily Columbians, who rested during the entire race and let the USA lead.   But, Kelly and Brittany changed up the lead and seemed in complete control of the race. Then, disaster struck.  With three laps to go, Brittany was disqualified for changing lanes.  This put the field in a bit of shock, and it took just a bit to recover.  But recover they did, and the Columbians jumped out to take 1-2, Kelly battled it out for third, but it was not enough.  Korea edged out Kelly for the bronze.

For Junior men Jono Gorman and Kyle Lazzell, the race was more a knock down drag out fight. Skating directly behind the Columbians, they tried to remain in around 5th place, but holding that spot in the pack was not easy.  Although not marred with the falls of the heat races, the pushing and shoving was evident.  Kyle lost most of his race number on his back within the first 15 laps.  Jono received a huge shove that sent him forward and sideways from another skater, but he stayed up and continued to battle back time after time.   Kyle was right behind him every time.  Then, with about 12 laps to go, Kyle got hung up and was in the back.  He thought he was eliminated, but they eliminated Venezuela instead.  Unfortunately, Kyle had not taken advantage of the slowdown to move forward, and he was gapped.  He couldnt recover and was eliminated the next time around.  Down to three laps to go, Jono battled it out without his teammate.  He was unable to move forward due to the Columbians and Italians who were all still in the race.  In the sprint for the finish, the Columbians moved out 1-2 in typical fashion, but they were a bit distracted protecting against Jono and Italy flew by.  On the last straight away in the sprint for the finish, Italy hawked Columbia at the line.  It was Italy, two Columbians, Jono, and the final Italian. Exciting finish....nerve-wracking.....heartbreaking.....but wonderful skating and a job well done to all the final five skaters!