Seoul Day 1 - Pascal Dion in action this weekend

With less than a hundred days before the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic games, the Mokdong ice rink in Seoul is hosting the fourth short track speed skating World cup event of the season this week. One last chance for the best skaters in the world, to secure olympic spots for their country.

By Carl Savard
Photos by  Patrick Charbonneau

The shortened 2017-2018 World cup season in short track ends this weekend in Korea. The skaters were in action today, hoping they could qualify for the main events coming up Saturday on 1500m and 500m. This season full of ups and downs, records and disappointments, injuries, tears and smiles offered short track fans an amazing fall and this weekend will surely be full of emotions as well.

On the women’s side

While the first three World cup events of the season held in Budapest, Dordrecht and Shanghai had offered us a whole lot of surprises in the qualifying rounds, today was pretty calm. Nothing major to report on 1500m. As for the action on 500m, Véronique Pierron fell and Charlotte Gilmartin was advanced to the next round. Kim Alang was penalised bringing the referees to advance Japanese skater Sumire Kikuchi. No big story there. All the top skaters registered to race on both 1500m and 500m are ready for the show. A last chance before Pyeongchang 2018 for fans to see, on both distances, St-Gelais, Choi, Schulting, Shim, Christie and Fontana to name a few.

On the men’s side

Pretty much the same scenario for the men on 1500m, as the first two rounds on the distance were pretty quiet. We can not say the same about the 500m rounds though, as some major actors will not compete on the distance on Saturday. Hwang Dae Heon and Seo Yi Ra, presently sitting in third and fifth place on the 500m ranking after three events, are not registered on the distance this weekend. Sjinkie Knegt, presently in seventh place, was not able to go through the second round. Dylan Hoogerwerf and Charles Hamelin were both penalised in the second round. The Dutch is in ninth place overall while Canada’s veteran superstar is in tenth. Do not worry, we will still see plenty of action on the distance coming from the likes of Girard, Kwak, Elistratov, Wu, Celski, Ahn and the Liu brothers.

Great first day for Canada's Pascal Dion

Canada’s young star Pascal Dion will be in action this weekend. Dion qualified today for both the 500m and 1500m distances. All through the season, the skater from Montreal,Qc helped his team win two gold medals and one bronze but he had not competed yet on individual distances. “It went well today. My first race was a bit tough. I felt great physically but mentally it was difficult because I had not raced in solo since August, but I adjusted well for my second 500m and my 1500m races.”

Skaters will be back in action tomorrow to try to qualify for the 1000m and relay event.