This week, Euros can do...

Before we get down to ice business, a follow-up from last week's article of mine.

The Portland Trail Blazers, beset with woes, a team which can't seem to help but get into trouble at every turn off the court, took another public relations hit when it announced last week that it is giving up ownership of the Fire, the city's Women's NBA franchise. That brings to four the number of NBA teams that have declined to continue to support its WNBA equivalent.

Both of the league's Florida bases, the Miami Sol and Orlando Miracle, have folded, while the Utah Starzz have relocated to San Antonio. Attempts to find a local owner for the Fire failed, and, like the Sol and Miracle, its players will likely go into a dispersal draft scheduled before the WNBA draft this spring.

The NBA Board of Governors approved a restructuring plan allowing owners of NBA teams the first rights to buy WNBA teams in the fall. It has become a convenient out for cities, which were not receptive to the idea of women's pro basketball in their towns in the first place, to cut their counterparts off at the knees.

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For the eighth time since 1990, the European Speed Skating Championships were held at the one place where you can always count on a sellout crowd for the event -- Ijsstadion Thialf in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Once more, 14,000 fans packed the venerable ice hall for the 2003 edition, closing in on its 100th anniversary. The stakes were high; this would be the place to do well if you had any aspirations of going to next month's world all-round championships in Gothenborg, Sweden. By now, you know the drill; it wasn't a matter of whether the Dutch would wipe up the floor on the men's races and the Germans likewise on the women's. It was merely a question of who on the respective countries' squads would do so.

Two-time defending world champion Anni Friesinger, continuing her comeback from knee problems, won her third women's EC crown in four years while Gianni Romme, multiple Olympic champion and the 2000 World All-round winner, captured his first-ever continental crown. Both cruised to victory, with each winning three of the four races. Out of the field of 29 men and 22 women, just 11 and 14, respectively, would qualify for next month's affair.

For one have-not country in the mix, history was made. A small victory for a skating program, which has not had much success since its last taste of a world championship podium finish in 1951.

Kristina Egyed, veteran speed skater from Hungary, was the bronze medalist on the 500 meters which kicked off the three-day festival on Friday afternoon. It was the first European championship medal of any kind by a native Hungarian in 50 years, and the first by a woman. Emese Hunyady regularly won medals at these and other races and was born in Hungary, but she moved to, and became an Austrian citizen. She also qualified for Gothenburg next month.

Germans were 1, 2 and 4 as Claudia Pechstein won the overall silver, Renate Groenewold of the home side won the bronze by a comfortable margin over Daniela Anschutz (fourth) and the Dutch's Annamarie Thomas (fifth). For the first time since 1997, the Dutch men swept the podium, with Rintje Ritsma, six-time continental winner finding a second wind which was not there during last February's Winter Olympics for the runner-up, while Mark Tuitert, the 1999 World Junior champion, snatching up the bronze. Dimitri Shepel, 2001 Euro champion was fourth, spoiling a 1-2-3-4 Holland sweep, as Ralf van der Rijst finished fifth.

Romme, Ritsma and Tuitert will go to Sweden next month. Joining them will be a fourth skater, to be determined January 29 at Heerenveen in a combination 1,500m and 5,000mm skate-off between van der Rijst, Ids Postma, Carl Verheijen, Bob deJong and 2002 Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m champion Jochem Uytdehaage. For varying reasons, the last four names didn't qualify for the Euros but will nonetheless get a chance to skate here. Groenewold, Thomas, and Marja Vis (6th overall) will make up the Dutch women's squad.

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The remaining men's places for the February 4-5 event won by country were Germany, with Katrin Kalex join Pechstein, Friesinger and Anschutz (and Friesinger's brother, Jan as the sole male); the Russians with two men (Dimitri Shepel and Yevgeni Lalenkov) and a full compliment of four women (Svetlana Vysokova, Valentina Yakshina, Svetlana Bazhanova and Julia Skokova). Italy will send Enrico Fabris and Nicola Mayr, while the Norwegians leave the women at home and send Eskil Ervik and Lasse Saetre. Pavel Zygmunt is the lone Polish skater (men's).

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In Calgary, Catriona Lemay Doan, the 2002 Lou Marsh Trophy winner as Canada's Athlete of the Year as voted on by the Toronto Star, Jeremy Wotherspoon and Cindy Klassen had already pre-qualified for the Canadian national team for the remainder of the season, including World Championship competition, so the national single distance championships, which concluded Sunday were a chance for those on the bubble to do their best.

That didn't stop Klassen, though, from trying out her hand at the sprint races which were contested Thursday and Friday, and in the absence of any challenge from Lemay Doan, the former women's hockey player captured the sprint championship, defeating defending champion Shannon Rempel (second) and Kim Weger (third).

Wotherspoon raced just on Thursday, and in doing so, left the door open for rookie Brock Miron to take the men's sprint title, with Eric Brisson second and James Monson third. Miron will make his international debut at next weekend's world cup sprint in Kearns, Utah, as the circuit gets back up and running after a month-long hiatus.

Saturday and Sunday saw the Canadian National All-round championship decided, and those winners were Clara Hughes, bronze medalist on the Olympic 5,000m from Salt Lake City, and Steve Elm. Hughes fended off the challenges of Kristina Groves and Tara Risling (second and third), while Elm did likewise with Dustin Molicki and Kevin Marshall. Unfortunately, the Canadian team for the January 25-26 North American Qualification for the World All-round championships in Kearns was not announced by the time this went to press. That info will come next weekend.

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The World Cup, as mentioned, resumes after what seemed like forever and a day with 500m and 1,000m races at the Utah Olympic Oval, and a clarification is needed from last week's story. Chris Witty has not yet secured the final spot on the U.S. team for the World Sprints later this month. Due to having the flu, Witty did not participate in the National Sprint Championships, so she and Amy Sannes will have a skate-off for the final spot based on their performances over next weekend. It would be a colossal upset, to say the least, if Witty does not clean house. She is returning to the scene of her greatest triumph for the first time since February 17 of last year, when she won the 1,000 meter Olympic title after being diagnosed 29 days earlier with mononucleosis.

Next week, full coverage of the Kearns World Cup action and a World Sprints preview.