Day 3 - Woman's 3000m Speed Skating

After 4 very long days of shootings, I decided to to take it easy today and cover Speed Skating at the Richmond Oval. By taking it easy, i mean staying away from the transportation system. The oval is about 500m away from my mom's house, so i visited Mom, had some breakfast and walked to the venue. Again it was my first time at a new venue, so it took a bit of time to figure things out, but after checking in, i was track side pretty quick. I should know this by now, but once again the prime photos positions were all staked out well before race time. I ended up just after the finish line on the curve, which made for a great shot during the race, but was too close to the finish to get the best shots after the race.

The racing was great, with Canadian Skating heroes Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes competing, and Kristina Groves winning the Bronze medal.

As soon as the racing was finished, i wanted to get the flower ceremony shot, so i just followed 2 pool photographers (pool photogs always get the best shooting spots) as i assumed they knew where they were going. They led me to the photo manager who handed out Field of Play armbards that got me access to the center of the oval, just one of 10 photographers who had this access. Turns out all of the other photographers were lining up shooting from the far side of the track. So again i lucked out with a great ceremony shot.
Cindy Klassen of Canada during the womans 3000m speed skating event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. of the USA during the womans 3000m.Katarzyna Wozniak of Poland slips at the finish line of her pairing at the womans 3000m.Kristina Groves of Canada during the womans 3000m speed skating event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Groves won the Bronze medal.Ice Hockey star Jaromir Jagr cheers on the Czech's during the womans 3000m speed skating event.
Clara Hughes of Canada during the womans 3000m speed skating event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
The crowd cheers as Kristina Groves of Canada wins the Bronze medal at the womans 3000m speed skating event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic celebrates her Gold medal victory during the womans 3000m speed skating event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.