Some of the best short track speed skaters in Europe are in Dresden for the European championships.
By Jackob Savard
Photo: Schaats Foto’s
Even if some of the best skaters are missing, it will still be a great competition.
Who’s missing?
Liu Shaolin and his younger brother Liu Shaoang, who were two of the favorites, will not participate in the individual events. Cole Krueger, Burjan Csaba and Viktor Knoch will be the three Hungarians to skate the 500m, 1000m and 1500m The two brothers will only race in the relay event.
The reigning world champion Elise Christie will once again miss the European championships. She suffered an injury during the World cup season and prefered to miss this competition to have a better preparation for the Olympics that are fast-approaching.
It will still be a tight competition as Sjinkie Knegt, Victor An, Semen Elistratov, Vladislav Bykanov, Thibaut Fauconnet and other talented skaters will fight hard in the men’s category. It won't be easy for the reigning European champion Arianna Fontana as she will have to fight against skaters like Suzanne Schulting, Yara van Kerkhof, Véronique Pierron and Sofia Prosvirnova.
Day 1 highlights
The first day of competition was a qualifying day on every distances. It was a pretty easy day for the favorites but still, a few accident happened.
In the men’s 1500m qualifications, the veteran Yuri Confortola was penalized on Roberto Pukitis who will advance in the top group for the distance. In the next heat, the Dutch Daan Breeuwsma fell and will not advance.
On 1000m, Yara van Kerkhof was penalized in her qualifying round and will not advance. Tifany Huot-Marchand was advanced.
Watch out for day 2
The relay semi-finals and the 1500m final rounds will be raced on day 2. Dutch skaters Sjinkie Knegt and Suzanne Schulting are probably the favorite to win the distance but they will need to fight hard.
The first ladies semifinal in the 1500m competition is definitively the heat of death as Sofia Prosvirnova, Yara van Kerkhof, Suzanne Schulting, Veronique Pierron, Lara van Ruijven and two other skaters will fight for two spots in the A final. On the men’s side of the competition, the big semi is composed of Thibaut Fauconnet, Burjan Csaba, Sebastien Lepape, Itzhak de Laat and Victor An
To follow the competition
Livestream: https://www.eurovisionsports.tv/isu/
Live results: http://shorttrack.sportresult.com
Don't miss our daily recaps of the competition!
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